Dozens of families who live in a northern Ontario trailer park could be left homeless because of raw sewage bubbling up from the ground.
The local health authority in Algoma District has ordered River Valley Park near Sault Ste. Marie to close as of Sept. 1, citing a recommendation from the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.
The owner of the park plans to appeal the decision.
Dr. Marlene Spruyt, Medical Officer of Health with Algoma Public Health, says that the owner of the park was asked to make repairs “to ensure that sewage is not seeping up to the ground” and “failed to deliver.”
“We have to protect the health of the public because there's raw sewage seeping out to the soil level,” Dr. Spruyt said.
Dr. Spruyt said the health authority wants to see “an approved plan in place … to pump the septic system in the interim until the new system is put in place.”
Park resident Anna Abbott says that “everyone is on pins and needles,” not knowing “where they’re going or what’s happening.”
James Sloan, who moved in recently, said he has never seen the sewage and that the news about the planned closure has left “everybody stressed.”
“We’re all in limbo,” he said. “The neighbourhood feels that we’re all pawns in this game of this power struggle between (Algoma Public Health) and the owners.”
The owner of the park did not return calls from CTV Northern Ontario requesting an interview.
One resident, who did not want to be identified, said she has lived at the park for 30 years and can’t afford to move. She said she plans to stay regardless of any order.
With a report from CTV Northern Ontario’s Jairus Patterson
