Heiltsuk are worried about asbestos

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VANCOUVER-An alarmingly high rate of asbestos has been identified at the construction site of a salmon farm at Ocean Falls on the central coast. The Heiltsuk First Nation, the Sierra Legal Defence Fund and the David Suzuki Foundation say tests have shown the levels are 10 to 30 times higher than allowed in most municipal garbage dumps.

The construction site in traditional Heiltsuk territory north of Bella Bella was formerly the loction of a pulp mill.

The province leased the land to Omega Salmon Ltd., which the environmental groups and the Heiltsuk claim was not required to conduct a "proper environmental review" before work at the site started last fall.

Soil analysis conducted by Cantest and Research Services, an independent Vancouver laboratory contracted by the David Suzuki Foundation, reveals "that the sample containing white soil contained a minimum of 10 per cent and as much as 30 per cent by volume of chrysotile asbestos fibres," according to the foundation's marine conservation program director, Otto Langer.

White soil is a sight of industrial contamination. When the pulp mill was decommissioned about 20 years ago, it was not cleaned up, according to Langer.

The Heiltsuk are concerned their marine resources are directly threatened, and therefore their Aboriginal rights and title are threatened too. Their legal counsel is asking for work to be stopped until an environmental review is done, in collaboration with the Heiltsuk Nation and the environmentalists.