Sidney residents rally for action over contaminated creek

Sidney residents rally for action over contaminated creek A neighbourhood of concerned citizens want action for an issue they’ve been dealing with for more than four decades.

A neighbourhood of concerned citizens is demanding action over a contaminated creek, an issue that spans more than four decades.

People in Sidney are rallying to get Reay Creek cleaned up and restored to its natural condition.

They say the issue stems back to the 1960s when heavy metals were flushed into the creek from the industrial activity happening at the airport.

A 2015 report completed by SLR Consulting found chemicals like chromium, cadmium and zinc in the creek.

“The sediment in the pond has been accumulating over 50 years and it’s now so thick it’s migrating downstream to the ocean,” Ian Bruce with the Peninsula Stream Society said.

Green Party leader, Elizabeth May, said the sediment can even end up on people’s lawns.

“We can say absolutely without a shadow of a doubt, the level of cadmium in Reay Creek poses a threat if the mud with that level of contamination is getting in backyards,” May told CTV News. “Intuitively one might say it must be, but we haven’t had a study to prove that it is…I don’t want to be alarmist, I don’t want to scare people, but it isn’t something you can ignore.”

A non-profit organization that helps coordinate stream restoration and habitat conservation on the Saanich Peninsula says fish have been wiped out in the area more than once.

“There’s been a complete fish kill in my experience twice – that was in 2003 and 2004,” Bruce said.

It’s not just affecting the wildlife, but families in the community as well.

“There are hundreds of federal contaminated sites across Canada, but there are very few that are in a neighbourhood like this where children can be exposed to the chemicals,” May said.

On Saturday, a rally was held to raise awareness and get all levels of government on board with the restoration.

“What we’re trying to do is put all levels of government on notice that the residents have finally had enough. The beautiful thing about this is that nobody is disagreeing that there’s a problem,” a spokesperson for the residents of Reay Creek, Bill Collins, said.

Residents are frustrated because the issue was brought up long before the rally. According to Collins, it was presented to council in 1983.

“It’s a bad game of pass the parcel – the issue got passed around and looked over and forgotten,” he noted.

May believes a fear of liability among the different levels of government could be one of the reasons why it’s been ignored for so long.

“I am shocked that they knew from testing in 1998 that this stream had too much cadmium in it, that Reay Creek was significantly contaminated with very dangerous toxic chemicals and they didn’t warn people. That to me is negligence,” May said.

Moving forward, the next step is getting the creek posted to Transport Canada’s list of contaminated sites.

“The good news is that Transport Canada has agreed to review this site to consider whether to place it on its list of contaminated sites, and in order for the federal government to do work to spend that money it has to be on that list,” MLA of Saanich North and the Islands, Gary Holman, said.

In July Transport Canada will assess the severity of the issue and determine whether the creek should go on the list.

The residents say they won’t stop until the creek is cleaned up.

“We think we’re starting to move things in the right direction, but we are disappointed with the pace,” Collins said. “Our groups wants to keep the pressure on.”

You can read the full 2015 report here.

For more information on Reay Creek click here.