By Doug Draper
Ontario Environment Minister Jim Bradley has joined Environment Canada in urging the United States Environmental Protection Agency not to take a major toxic waste dump above the Niagara River Gorge in Niagara County, New York off its priority ‘Superfund’ list.
Ontario Environment Minister Jim Bradley
Their calls have followed concerns raised by environmental groups on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border, that delisting the Hyde Park dump – possibly the largest repository of dioxin and other poisons in North America – could be a recipe for ecological disaster.
In a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, and dated this past September 14, although only released this October 2 to Niagara At Large, Bradley makes it clear that Ontario “does not support the deletion of the Hooker (Hyde Park) site from the NPL (National Priority or Superfund list) at this time. … Due to the continued source of dioxins and furans entering the Niagara River from this site we believe that the proposed deletion of the Hooker (Hyde Park) site is premature.”
The Hyde Park dump, for those who may not be old enough to remember, earned a reputation in the 1970s and 80s as one of the most dangerous graveyards for chemical poisons in all of North America, and it was a significant source of dioxin and other toxins detected in fish and other wildlife through Lake Ontario, and in the flesh of beluga whales in the lower end of the St. Lawrence River. One Canadian government study found the fingerprints of chemicals known to be buried in this dump in the remains of humans who lived in the Kingston, Ontario area.
This toxic waste site was the subject of a major U.S. government lawsuit in the late 1970s, along with the infamous Love Canal dumpsite, S-Area and 102nd Street dumps in Niagara County, New York. Hyde Park, of all of the others put together, was the largest hole in a ground of fractured rock, a mere 2,000 yards or so from the brink of the Niagara River Gorge,. It was used to dump at least 80,000 tonnes of some of the most toxic wastes generated during the middle of the 20th century by Hooker (later known as the Occidental Chemical Company) or any other industry during that time. It is believe to be the largest graveyard for the most lethal strain of dioxin, an ingredient in the infamous Agent Orange defoliant sprayed over the landscape during the War in Vietnam.
The Hyde Park dump has, by a U.S. court order dating back three decades ago, been “contained” with purge wells and other infrastructure designed to last about 30 or 40 years before there is a need for replacement. Once that infrastructure breaks down, then who knows. Doug Hallett, a veteran scientist who monitored dioxin and other poisons in the Great Lakes during the 1970s and 80s, concludes that just a few shovel fulls of the dioxin from the Hyde Park site could do serious harm to Lake Ontario as a source of food for fish and other wildlife, and as a source of drinking water for millions of Canadians and Americans downstream from the dump.
A recent letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from Environment Canada cites recent monitoring results in the Niagara River, downstream from the Hyde Park dump, showing increasing concentrations of dioxin and other poisons in freshwater clams and other creatures inhabiting the waters downstream.
(Niagara At Large welcomes you to share your views on this post. Please remember that we only post comments from individuals who also share their first and last names.)
Niagara At Large 
Perhaps our concerned Environment Minister MPP Bradley should pay a little more attention to the serious pollution situations going on right here in his own riding.
MPP Bradley knows all about Niagara’s pollution and has said nothing.
In case he tries to pretend he is unaware we would encourage him to educate himself by visiting ‘Pollution Alert’: http://newsalertniagara.blogspot.com
A Note from NAL publisher Doug Draper – I agree with Preston Haskell that there are no doubt pollution issues here. Nevertheless, it is important to send this note to the United States and I would not necessarily pick the Ontario Environment Minister’s decision to do that as the best occasion to dump on him for shortcomings elsewhere. This Hyde Park site in Niagara County, New York holds more than enough toxic waste to destroy Lake Ontario as a source of life, much less drinking water, for centuries to come. So perhaps on this occasion, we ought to cut a little slack and say at least the province’s environment minister sent the United States a letter of concern. Doug Draper
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Come on Mr. Draper. Of course MPP Bradley did the right thing in sending his letter of concern to the EPA.
However, it is not right for Bradley to ignore those who have been pleading with him to at least look at environmental disasters affecting the health and welfare in his own riding.
We have Poisons being dumped that have the potential to kill every person in Niagara and still MPP Bradley won’t even respond to environmentalists who are trying to raise the alarm.
Mr. Draper, check out: Page 6-7-8-9
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Everything that I learned about the Hyde Park Chemical Dump , the largest dump on the eastern sea bord ,which has a huge pipe spewing toxic efluent, that has to have water added to meet certain guidlines. (dilute the pollution) into the lower Niagara River, came from the Niagara Gazette and articles by a hot news reporter working for the St.Cathariness Standard about 30 years ago. I think his name was Draper. (LOL) I was a supporter of the late Marg, Howe and was on the bridge with her when we dropped a wreath into our River to remind us of her near death.This dump will be the source of toxins for a thousand years.
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