IS THE REAL LESSON FROM THE ELECTROHOME TAX SALE THAT THE OWNER GOT A BREAK?

"Kitchener's effort to force a a tax sale of a notorious contaminated site has led to the owner getting a $800,000 tax break." That may be true but for me and for the health of local residents the real concern should be that the site "... is contaminated with metals, petroleum hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds, including trichloroethylene, classified as a carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency." These quotes are from the last Friday's Waterloo Region Record article titled, "Tax sale gives property owner $800K break."

From the colour photograph included with the front page story it appears as if this contaminated property isn't even fenced off thus allowing children, teenagers or even local pets to visit the toxic site. Furthermore these above mentioned chemicals can migrate in the subsurface both as a vapour and with the groundwater. In the U.S. there have been a number of major health issues including cancer clusters and deaths attributed to trichloroethylene (TCE) migrating as a vapour into the basements of homes. The exact same thing happened to the Bishop St. community in Cambridge and wasn't discovered until about 2005. The culprits were Northstar Aerospace and Rozell (G.E.). Cancers, ill health and deaths have been attributed to the migrating TCE. The process of entering into homes is known as vapour intrusion.

The question for me is whether our authorities be they municipal, regional or provincial (MOE/MECP) have done any testing or investigation whatsoever to determine if this can or has occurred in the Shanley and Duke St. area of Kitchener.