Peggy Revell
Couchiching First Nation residents still are waiting for action and answers from federal agencies months after engineering tests revealed high levels of contamination at the former site of the J.A. Mathieu sawmill.
“Absolutely nothing” has changed for residents, said Lisa McPherson, whose family home is within the identified site that stretches along Harry’s Road off Highway 11.
Instead, she noted testing continues—this time for six newly-identified chemicals that are present on top of the high levels of PCDDs and PCDFs identified in soil, groundwater, and dust samples taken by DST Consulting Engineering.
But at this point, the main objective should be to get people out of there, not just continue with testing, stressed Amanda Jourdain, whose family was relocated earlier this year as a precautionary measure and now are renting a house in Fort Frances.
“They have declared in all the reports, in the air sampling, in the dust samplings, groundwater and soil, they’ve all come back [at what’s] called ‘unacceptable human health risk,’” she noted.
“Our main point is that they need to get the people out of there, and how bad does it have to get?
“Move the people first and then they can test for 10 years and spend a godawful amount of money if they want to,” Jourdain added. “But the people and the kids shouldn’t have to stay there and be affected by it.”
“It would make just sense—get [everyone] out, quarantine the area off, don’t let anybody back,” agreed McPherson. “Then they could take their time cleaning it up—not that they should—but at least we’re not sitting here during this.
“This is inevitable, so why drag it out? It’s ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous,” she fumed, pointing out many of the families already could have been bought out with the money INAC has put into testing alone—a number they’ve been told is $1.2 million.
Like the Jourdains, the McPhersons relocated in March but eventually returned back to their home due to mental and financial stress. While they were the only two families relocated, the range of contamination stretches to include dozens of family homes in the area.
While it originally was assumed the contaminants arose from the former dipping pond of the J.A. Mathieu sawmill site, further historical research by DST has found that the site and surrounding areas have been used for other activities, such as wood treatment using zinc chloride as early as 1911, as well as a dry kiln for using an unknown chemical to treat wood, a lathe and lumber storage yards, an asphalt plant, and more.
“[INAC is] responsible as far as we’re concerned, from our end,” said Amanda Jourdain’s husband, Shawn. “Because when the land was issued to the mill sites, it was supposed to be restored back to it’s original state and it wasn’t.
“And we never chose to live on contaminated soil—it was just that we ended up building there.
“It’s frustrating,” he admitted. “I mean, we’re paying for a home we can’t live in, that we’ll never be able to live in.”
But while further testing is being done, one part of the delay has come from Health Canada itself, said McPherson.
“They’re basically saying, ‘We don’t have enough on paper, you’re not sick, we can’t prove you’re sick yet.’ Well, yeah, because you have my papers,” she noted, pointing to how residents still are waiting to hear the results of blood tests that were taken more than three months ago.
If the residents are being affected by the contaminants, it will show up “like a fingerprint” in their bloodwork, McPherson explained.
When questioned about the bloodwork results, Dr. Thomas Dignan, regional community medicine specialist with Health Canada, Thunder Bay zone, stated that: “The results are being processed in Ottawa at the government labs and they have many other things to be concerned about at this particular time and they will forward them to me as soon as they’re done.”
But to McPherson, it’s not acceptable the testing has taken this long.
“That’s three months, and what were there—10, 15 of us tested?” she remarked. “Don’t you think you want a little rush on this?
“That’s ridiculous when you’re dealing with people.”
Even if these blood tests come back as clear, residents will require even more tests for the six newly-identified chemicals, she noted.
Meanwhile, Health Canada is waiting for the second report from DST on the six chemicals before proceeding, said Dr. Dignan.
This new testing is being done because DST “went back to different parts of the area and have come up with other solvents that were used in the wood treatment plant,” he noted, adding that until the test results for these six new chemicals are in, Health Canada cannot say definitively that there is no risk.
But Dr. Dignan stressed the initial results from DST which Health Canada received and reviewed indicated there was no need for people to be removed from their houses—something the DST consultants agreed with—and it was safe for both the Jourdains and McPhersons to return to their homes once they were cleaned.
The only way residents would be at risk is if they were to come in contact with the soil through “eating it” or “rolling around in it,” Dr. Dignan said, and as far as his knowledge, the areas of concern had been fenced off.
“Health Canada and Indian Affairs has been more than open with the community, and shared everything with them that we know,” Dr. Dignan stressed.
“It’s frustrating from my perspective because I’m a First Nations’ physician and my concern is the community, and I’ve always expressed that to the community, but they’re sometimes confusing political issues with health issues.”
But this response from Health Canada isn’t good enough for the Jourdains, who say they won’t be moving back to their home.
“They say that, they say that you can move in,” said Amanda Jourdain, “Well, if we can move back in, then how come the area can be chain linked off and be an ‘unacceptable human health risk?’
“Because they don’t really know what actually happens, and it affects reproductive toxicology, which means it affects the kids, and their kids, like it builds up in their system,” she charged.
“And that is just the chemicals that they’ve tested for so far, and that is why they’re testing for these six new ones.”
If officials say the site is safe, then they can move their kids in there, Jourdain added.
“We’re supposed to live here, we’re supposed to swim here,” said McPherson, noting the health risks (eating or rolling around in soil) means they can’t garden or grow their own vegetables, and that family pets are at risk.
And to date, there has been no cleaning of the homes to get rid of any indoor contamination, she added, and nothing has been done to start the remediation of soil which has been fenced off in both of their yards.
In fact, McPherson has taken to putting a sprinkler on both her and the Jourdains’ fenced-off lawns to keep the dust down—a move she opted for so that DST wouldn’t have to drive in from Thunder Bay three days a week to manage the dust.
For McPherson, the delays and excuses from government feels like officials won’t take action until after someone gets sick enough.
“How long do we let them drag on for now? We gave them a break for a bit, because we thought maybe something was going to happen, and absolutely nothing has,” she charged, calling the lack of action a liability issue.
“Basically, we have to get sick, and once we are, are you going to ship us some body bags because we live on a reservation?” McPherson wondered, referring to the recent move by Health Canada to send body bags alongside other health supplies to remote reserves in Manitoba when the communities had requested help in fighting against the H1N1 ’flu virus.
“Is that what we’re going get? Are you just going to send us some body bags so we can slap our kids in there?”
And with the contaminated area located on the lakefront, the issue stretches beyond Couchiching, both McPherson and the Jourdains stressed, adding they’re hoping to see support from other area residents and the Town of Fort Frances.
“It’s ground level and everything from our house and north of us goes directly into our lakefront, so it’s got to be in the water as far as I’m concerned,” said Shawn Jourdain.
“This is in Rainy Lake,” McPherson said. “We might be on the rez, but this is everyone’s lake.
“So why isn’t that important? Why isn’t the town doing anything about it?
“It’s already been proven that this is in the lake,” she continued, pointing out that considering how big fishing is in the area, the possible effects of contamination on the fish population—which ultimately are ending up on people’s dinner plates—should be of concern to everyone.
The Jourdains remain hopeful for the outcome, noting they’ve seen improvements with the local project team of officials working on the problem.
“Our project team—they’re doing a great job,” said Amanda Jourdain. “It is the higher-ups that have to give them the okays that have been absolutely useless so far.”
While previous meetings with officials had left them feeling ignored, Shawn Jourdain said at the most recent meeting, held Sept. 21, they were given more answers.
“Hopefully, things are going to move in a positive direction,” he said. “We all kind of left there with a better feeling than we did last time.
“[But] they’re talking years,” Jourdain said of the timeline. “Our family—and I think I speak for most of the families—would like to get on with our lives and not spend three or 10 years figuring out what it could be, or what could go wrong.
“Get us out, move us out, and be done with it,” he stressed. “It would be the right thing to do, and that’s one thing they have to realize.”
