FORMER ELECTROHOME SITE ON SHANLEY ST. CONTAMINATED

Here in living colour is the reality of contaminated sites in Ontario. It's not a case of discovering them. It's not so much a case of midnight dumping out in the back fourty. The reality is sites such as the former Electrohome site at the corner of Shanley St. and Duke St. in Kitchener. The City of Kitchener and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment have known about this contaminated site for decades. And done nothing substantive.

The soil and groundwater contamination is TCE otherwise known as trichloroethylene. This is the same contaminant that has killed and sickened so many in the Bishop St. community of Cambridge. This is the same contaminant that caused childrens' cancer deaths in the John Travolta movie, A Civil Trial. That movie was based on the real life experiences that occurred in Woburn Massachussets.

In Woburn the theory was that the TCE volatolized in the hot water in showers and people then inhaled it. In Cambridge the volatilization from a liquid to a gas took place underground and then entered people's homes through basement floors and or cracks in the foundation.

Regardless our authorities, tasked with the responsibility of protecting citizens from health effects of pollution are failing us in dramatic fashion. Above and beyond the groundwater issue and hence drinking water is the issue of fumes entering people's homes. Has any testing whatsover been done to determine if that is happening? Have even basic hydrogeology been looked at to detrmine if the conditions are conduicive to vapour intrusion into neighbour's homes? Shame on all levels of government if they haven't even begun looking into this. The Waterloo Region Record published this story last Thursday November 15, 2012 titled "City tries to sell former plant site, collect back taxes".