Feb 23, 2010
MacGillivray Law
Stirring Up The Dust
An Article From The New Glasgow Paper, “The News”, Discussing A Legal Action From Two Families In Stellarton Represented By MacGillivray Injury And Insurance Law
EVANSVILLE - Patty Lloyd feels like a broken record most days.
The Water Street resident has lived in the shadow of Pioneer Coal's open pit operation since it broke ground in the mid-1990s. Her street, and Lehigh Street, now form a tiny island of residential property, surrounded by an industrial moonscape.
In the last few years, or thereabouts, she's become vocal over concerns of dust and noise emanating from the mining operation and these days she's taking those concerns to just about anyone who'll listen. But she's run up against roadblocks just about everywhere she feels she can get an answer.
To be fair, there is a big white elephant in the picture now: in December, Lloyd and husband, as well as their neighbours, the Stewarts, filed a civil suit against the mine for nuisance. It's made some information channels inaccessible - but Lloyd says not much worse than they already were. Even before the suit was filed, Lloyd said she felt she was getting the run-around.
She goes to the Department of the Environment, the mine itself. Lloyd's become a regular at Stellarton council too, and brings new queries to the town at each opportunity.
With the Department of Environment, "We've been conversing back and forth for two years," she said. With several complaints, she says she'll get in touch with an inspector who'll come out and look around, take some pictures and then leave.
"And that's the last you hear of it," she said. "They move you in a circle - you go to this person and then another."
Penny McLeod, a manager at the department's Granton office, said whenever a complaint is received, "it's given to the individual who would be responsible for that file or that area. There are four inspectors - so one of the four would be given that complaint and then they'd be required to follow up on it."
Part of the issue has to do with how the mine is required to report dust and noise levels.
Stationed around the pits, there are four dust monitors, which run every six days for a full day. When they're in operation, the monitors are like vacuum cleaners. They suck in the air around them, filtering it through to capture particulate matter. The results taken from the monitors are submitted once per year.
McLeod said her department is monitoring dust levels for trends "if you see your numbers sort of creeping up, well you figure there's something going on there."
Additionally, she said a report is required whenever there is non-compliance.
Recently, Lloyd said she got a letter, telling her that instead of dealing with the department, they should be speaking with a citizens liaison committee. It's a group that Lloyd claims she's never heard of until the letter was sent to her.
The committee is formed of community members and businesses, which are meant to be representative of the public interest when it comes to concerns over the mine. While the committee is required under the mine's environmental assessment, they're not a government body and its members aren't required by law to divulge any information.
Linda MacDonald is the chair of that committee. The group used to meet quite regularly, she said.
"More when the mine first started - there were all kinds of issues that people were coming to us for. Then, after a lot of the houses and properties had been bought, and the mine was underway - it's sort of petered off."
About two and a half weeks ago, she said she received a call from Lloyd who was requesting information. On that first contact, MacDonald said she wasn't told of the pending lawsuit. And that's, obviously, limited what MacDonald and the committee can do.
"The information she was requiring cannot be had now, because she's got a lawsuit - so they're not going to give out information," MacDonald said.
MacDonald doesn't dispute that their lives have been disrupted. But still, she wonders, why after all this time has the issue of dust and noise only recently become a cause for concern.
"I understand what she's saying, but how come for the first 13 years, it didn't bother her?"
Then there's council, Lloyd regularly attends with questions ranging from the placement of MacGregor and Foster Avenues, road conditions. After one meeting, she requested that the town learn if the mine is encroaching on town property.
Some of those answers have come back. In November, Pioneer Coal outlined its plans for curbing and paving roads in the areas near the mine. But not all of them and getting action has been a slow process, she said.
"Town council, I've been at them for a while, it must be over a year. On the condition of this road in particular - the hole that's on the side (of the pit). Now they have a wall there or some sort of berm."
"I had to go to the chief of police. The council directed me to the chief of police. I don't know how many times I asked about that. I mean, you go 30 feet and fall down a hole that's 250 feet."
The mine is expected to operate in the area for a few more years. Lloyd said she has no plans of ceasing her work.
"I think they're just letting us go on, and on, and on, to see if we're going to tire. But, there's no hope in that, I don't think."
Written by Sean Kelly, originally published by The News, December 23, 2010
Topics: Long Term Disability, Auto Accident, Civil Suits
