Waste on First Nations' Land?
brennain@web.apc.org
Fri, 10 Jun 1994 15:43:00 PDT
In the late 50's or early 60's, Noranda Mine opened a plant ont eh
Serpent River reserve to produce sulphuric acid for the uranium
mines in Elliot Lake - the federal government negotiated the lease
of the Serpent River lands as part of their "trust responsibility";
in 1962 Noranda transferred the lease and plant to Canadian
Industries Limited (CIL); in 1963 CIL closed the plant and left
mounds of sulphur and other waste behind; after years of pressure
from Serpent River First Nation to address the problem, Indian
Affairs sent the army in 1969 to blow up the buildings, which
spread the waste, ploughed the toxics into the ground and made it
even uglier than before; after years of studies and pressure from
the Serpent River people, and years of rashes and health and eye
problems, clean-up funding was negotiated, the details of which I'm
not clear on, but which you could get by contacting Chief Earl
Commanda, c\o the Serpent River band office, in Cutler, Ontario.
Postal code is P0P 1B0, telephone is 705 844-2418. The Serpent
River First Nation has also been dealing with the upstream
contamination from the 200 million tonnes of uranium mine wastes
(the Serpent River is the biggest single point source of radium in
the Great Lakes) and the contamination of the waters of the North
Shore of Lake Huron from the pulp and paper mill in Espanola and
ore smelters in the Sudbury basin.
[don't know if this is where I was supposed to respond, but neither
could I figure out where else I was supposed to do it, if not here.
If this should be elseehwere, where, could someone help out by
getting it there? thanks]