Tyendinaga hands water files to feds, province
The Tyendinaga band council has handed over copies of reports completed on it’s drinking water to provincial and federal agencies, including Health Canada, to determine the toxicology levels of chemicals found in test wells around at the controversial landfill.
By Kenneth Jackson
APTN National News
The Tyendinaga band council has handed over reports completed on its drinking water to provincial and federal agencies, including Health Canada, to determine the toxicology levels of chemicals found in test wells around at the controversial landfill.
Chief R. Donald Maracle said he’s not a toxicology expert and while consultants hired by the band to investigate say it’s not a risk to public safety, he wants Health Canada, Ministry of Environment and Aboriginal Affairs officials to have an independent look.
“I am not expert on this. It’s something that a toxicologist would have to look at and I’ve asked them to look at the reports to answer that question. They have all their reviewers looking at all the historical reports that have been done on well water testing,” said Maracle Thursday.
The chief and council of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory has come under fire in recent weeks because of a spike in childhood leukemia. Three children have been diagnosed, and one has recently died. Other children have body sores and another has a brain tumour. Residents are convinced the water is the cause but doctors have said medical science doesn’t support the claim.
Community members have filed a complaint with the Tyendinaga Mohawk police to investigate possible criminally negligence by the band council in handling the water crisis that dates back to 1990 and previously reported by APTN National News. The Mohawk police have passed the file to the Ontario Provincial Police for investigation. APTN can confirm investigators ave begun obtaining witness statements.
Town meetings have been called where community members have demanded answers from the band council, particularly with their handling of the landfill there that was closed and capped several years ago. Test wells around the dump show chemicals such as benzene in the water. The dump sits on what is known as fractured limestone bedrock and sits atop an aquifer many residents draw from for their drinking water.
Maracle said tests showed benzene is naturally occurring and there was no migration to other dug wells in the area. However, he said reading the reports aren’t an easy thing to do and they need to be done by an expert.
“Obviously the reports should have said these are toxic levels and you need to put out a health advisory. The consultants never made any of those recommendations. All they did was a chart with a whole list of testing perimeters that I don’t think any layman person would understand,” Maracle said.
When asked why he didn’t have the reports analyzed before now Maracle said he was told by the consultant the chemicals weren’t migrating from the dump.
“They had checked the wells and it wasn’t migrating off the dump site. It was something occurring naturally in the environment,” he said.
Health Canada has provided $30,000 to do water tests of wells near the dump and other places. Each test costs about S1,300.
They started with Dawn Sero-Loft’s home. She was the mother of Paula, 13, who died in September of leukemia. Sero-Loft said she would get a call if the water was bad.
