Community still waiting for long-term solutions

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A decision by the Ontario provincial government to evacuate some residents of Kashechewan First Nation will help the community in the short term, but it still remains unclear when or if any long-term solutions will be offered up, and who will be doing the offering.

David Ramsay, Ontario's minister of Aboriginal Affairs, declared a medical emergency in the community on Oct. 25 and announced that about 1,000 residents of Kashechewan would be evacuated to nearby communities such as Timmins and Cochrane where they can have access to safe water and medical treatment. The province will be seeking reimbursement for the cost of the evacuation from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), which had announced days earlier that it did not plan an evacuation despite calls from community leaders to do so.

The small community of approximately 1,900 located on the shores of James Bay has been making headlines since mid-October, when routine testing of the reserve's water supply showed elevated levels of E.coli, the same species of bacteria that left seven dead and more than 2,000 ill in Walkerton, Ont. in May 2000. But, while the attention is new, Kashechewan has been dealing with water quality problems for more than a decade.

According to Paul Duchesne, a media relations officer with Health Canada, the community has been under its current boil water advisory since 2003, put in place because the high turbidity of the water could potentially mask the presence of bacteria.

The E.coli was detected in the water supply during Health Canada's weekly testing.

"Test results received Oct. 14 showed elevated levels of total coliform and E.coli bacteria. That occurred because of low chlorine residuals in the water distribution system," he said. "On Oct. 19 our environmental health officer returned, did some more testing, and there was actually four water samples. And they were all showing zero coliform."

On Oct. 25, Health Canada sent a community medicine specialist and a senior environmental health officer to the community to help residents affected by the water contamination.

Rebecca Friday, deputy chief of Kashechewan First Nation, is frustrated by what the people of her community are having to go through, and by the lack of action on the part of the federal government to deal with the water quality problems once and for all.

"I'm telling you, we live in a shit hole. I can say that now because I'm frustrated. I'm angry.

Enough is enough. It's just like we're in the Third World. Come on, Canada, wake up. We've got Native people suffering. And where's the millions, billions of dollars ... where is it going? It's going overseas ... My goodness, it's just horrific. That's all I can say. I'm just so upset," Friday said.

"You know, my people have been through trauma and this is really trauma for them because, like I say, you're expected to boil water for 13 years. And they've done that. I don't know how they cope with it ... and then the E.coli shows up. And then that really, it was devastating for my community for them to be told this. And what do you do after that? They don't trust water anymore ... They're just not going to touch the water anymore. It's sad to say that, but that's the reality."

A big part of the problem with the community's water quality has to do with the location of the water treatment plant 150 yards downstream from the sewage lagoon.

According to information contained on the Web site of the Canadian Council of Ministries of the Environment (www.ccme.ca) E.coli is a type of coliform bacteria associated with the fecal matter of humans and warm-blooded animals. If water tests positive for E.coli, that means it has been contaminated by fecal matter, either from sewage discharges or another source.

While some strains of E.coli are harmless, others can cause severe illness, especially among young children, the elderly and the chronically ill.

Concerns have also been raised that the water quality problems coud result in the spread of Hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver, among community members. According to the World Health Organization, two types of the disease, Hepatitis A and Hepatitis E, can be transmitted through water contaminated with fecal matter.

Attempts to get rid of the E.coli by increasing the amount of chlorine in the water have also caused problems among residents, exacerbating skin conditions many think were caused by bathing in unsafe water.

One long-term solution to the problem that Friday would like to see implemented is relocation of the community.

"I think that would be best for my future generation because they need a good place to live," she said.

With the community being under boil water advisories and having to rely on a questionable water supply for 13 years, Kashechewan has an entire generation that doesn't know what it's like to be able to drink water right out of the tap. And community leaders can only begin to guess how many illnesses and deaths among residents are linked to years of consuming contaminated water.

While the provincial and federal governments treat Kashechewan as another jurisdictional hot potato, the federal and provincial representatives from the area have joined forces to call on both levels of government to take action to help the community.

Gilles Bisson, NDP MPP for Timmins-James Bay and Charlie Angus, NDP MP for Timmins-James Bay, held a press conference on Oct. 24, accusing both levels of government of "long-term systemic negligence towards the community" and calling for the community to be relocated, for a new plant to be built, for an inquiry to be held to determine who is responsible for the E.coli outbreak and for the province to implement the recommendations that came out of the Walkerton inquiry on reserves and to hold the federal government responsible for following those recommendations.

"We're sending a message that we don't care whose jurisdiction it is, someone has to stand up and take action, Agus said.

Angus was in Kashechewan on Oct. 20 and met with members of the community.

"They're fed up and their frustration is definitely boiling over," he said.

"When I was there ... we saw children with their hands bandaged. We had a father crying in front of us when he talked about his daughter who'd developed tumors. I saw a four-year-old covered in open sores, the entire body, that the mother had been bathing in the E.coli water thinking it would soothe the pain," Charlie Angus said.

"So can I attribute any of these in particular to this particular outbreak of E.coli? I can't. But if you ask me, is this the result of having to raise children in a toilet, well, yes indeed. And that's what that community is. It's a cesspool. The sewage is backing up, the housing, the mold are a national disgrace. And the water doesn't work. You know, the compounding factors have really made this a disaster zone, and it needs to be seen as a disaster zone."

INAC's response to the Kashechewan crisis has been to ship in bottled water and send in certified water treatment plant operators to stabilize operation of the treatment plant. According to a news release issued by the department, samples of the community's water taken between Oct. 17 and 19 show no E.coli or other coliform bacteria in the water supply. Tests done on Oct. 25 also showed turbidity levels were now within the provincial standards, but the release indicated the boil water advisory would remain in effect until the treatment plant was "providing clean, safe drinking water on a continuous basis."

The department is continuing to make repairs to the plant aimed at achieving that goal and plans to bring in a consulting engineer to examine the quality of water at the site of treatment plant intake and what if any repairs are needed to the community's sewage treatment lagoon.

But while getting the plant operating properly is a laudable goal, it doesn't mean it will stay that way for long, Angus said.

"The experts hve told us that this plant has to operate at 100 per cent capacity, 24 hours a day, and they simply can't guarantee that. For one, the plant is not built properly for it. Pumps aren't working. Filters aren't working. Gages aren't working. And also, the team told us you'd have to have a team of highly, highly qualified engineers to be able to assess the chemical mixture that you would need on a regular basis and even to be able to test for E.coli. And that's never existed in the community. And the community has cried out from the beginning that this is a very complex, overworked plant and they need training. So to hear it from the experts who were there saying even with an absolutely highly qualified team ... they said guaranteeing safety was, their quote, 'A shot in the dark.'"