Lund's 'good news' leaves a bad taste

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Something smells in the Swan Hills area and it's not the tainted meat of the wildlife.

The government's comments that wild meat taken within 30 km of the Swan Hills Treatment Centre is not as dangerous as first suspected is little more than a ruse, said Jim Badger, Grand Chief of the Lesser Slave Lake Indian Regional Council.

In a presentation early in May, provincial health officer Dr. John Waters said that eating wild game from the Swan Hills area "poses no immediate threat to human health." He was quick to add, that's only if the meat is eaten in small quantities - about 13 ounces per month.

The announcement is a joke and terribly "suspect'" according to Badger. He knows people who would eat that much at a single meal.

And telling First Nations people - who eat wild game daily - to limit their intake of the possibly contaminated meat to 13 ounces a month is ludicrous.

There's over 2,000 kg of wild meat in freezers across the region, and the grand chief said he's urging residents to put it to good use.

"I think we should pile it all on (Minister of Environmental Protection) Ty Lund's front step," he said with a laugh.

Despite repeated calls from the regional council and concerned residents in the area, Lund has refused to close the Swan Hills facility.

Badger plans to push the matter further, and is urging all women in the area who are breast-feeding babies to collect and freeze samples of their breast milk for a law suit he plans to launch against the waste treatment plant at a later date.

"Something is very wrong here," the grand chief said just hours after Waters' announcement.

"Two years ago we gave the government some suggestions about where it should be looking, problems it should be watching out for, and now it's turning around and telling us the same thing."

The announcement last week smacks of protectionism, he said, and the province is once again "kissing up to [plant operators] Chem Securities. Before you know it, Chem Securities will be slapping itself on the wrist."

The province doesn't care that neighboring communities are being poisoned by airborne contaminants from the waste treatment plant, Badger said.

"It's little more than environmental racism. If it's Indian, it's no problem to the government," he said.

"People in the bedroom communities along the lake have got to start taking a serious look at this."

The province has also been collecting human blood as well as fish samples from the area for testing. Results are expected within the next two months.

The testing was launched last October after the waste disposal facility in Swan Hills - formerly owned in partnership with the province - admitted it had accidentally released large amounts of polychlorinated biphenyl's (PCBs), dioxins and furans into the air at the plant site. After finding elevated levels of the same toxins in the meat of wild game close to the facility, the province advised area residents to avoid eating any animals taken within 30 km of the facility until it could conduct further testing.

But last week, Waters issued a somewhat reserved 'all clear'.

"None of the levels detected in the wild meat samples are high enough to cause any immediate health problems nor cause undue concern for people who may have consumed the meat before the advisory was issued," said Waters.

"However, because we have detected elevated levels of contaminants and because these toxic chemicals accumulate over time. . . it is prudent to limit consumption of game taken from within a 30 km radius of the Swan Hills Treatment Centre."

Charges under the province's Environmental Protection Act were laid against Chem Securities and its parent company Bovar Ltd. last fall, and could result in millions of dollars in fines.