Shirt Tales

• Second smog alert of 2007 issued for this date!!
  
• "No public notification when Smith [a Ministry official] issued his recommendation April 27 to
  municipalities to test water from household taps after the City of London found unsafe lead levels in drinking water in about 25 per cent of older homes tested....Pipes and solder connections made of lead were popular during the post-Second World War building boom...Lead in drinking water can cause a variety of adverse health effects. In babies and children, lead exposure can result in delays in physical and mental development, along with slight deficits in attention span and learning abilities. In adults, it could cause kidney problems or high blood pressure." (2)
• ON Ministry of Environment has agreed to review "of the need to develop provisions to protect groundwater and sourcewaters in the Waterloo Moraine" as per Clean Water Act 2006 and Provincial Policy Statement 2005. More information to be found here: http://waterloomoraineact.com/
• "Car drivers may have ....to pay ... tolls to get into the heart of a city. This possibility has been raised by Montreal's mayor, Gerald Tremblay.....The traffic flow isn't helped by the fact that Montreal is an island*, which means that drivers can enter the city only on the few bridges that span the nearby waters.....First, the toll would serve as an incentive to drivers to leave their cars at home and either commute with others, take public transit, or ride a bicycle. Secondly, it would provide a source of revenue** the city could use to improve the transit service, particularly the city's subway system." (3)
• "Urban deer could become increasingly common in Waterloo Region...Woodlots throughout the region have been giving way to suburbs for years, and the animals have few places left to go." Be warned: the animals will behave unpredictably around heavy traffic. (1)
• City of Kitchener coal-tar cleanup now entering Stage 3 and to be completed by fall 2007? Per city website:
  "Citizens can be assured that there is no increased health risk to anyone. Adverse health effects from coal tar can only result from touching, eating or inhaling the substance, at a significant concentration, for a long period of time. The City’s contractor will be continuing measures –including air quality monitoring – to ensure that members of the public are not exposed to such conditions...A dedicated telephone line has been established for any inquiries you may have about the Gaukel and Joseph Street reconstruction project.
  The public phone number is 519-741-2311." (4) However, a nearby resident "could see the workers wearing white suits and gas masks as they removed the toxic sludge from the site. In addition to the dust, vibrations and noise, there was a strong odour in the air that smelled like mothballs while the coal tar was being dug out of the ground. "It's like, yeah, I feel safe," Graham said. "When you went inside the house you still smelled it even with all the windows closed.  Neighbours complained of nausea and headaches." (5)
• [Prime Minister] Harper's trip [to Aghanistan yesterday] was apparently designed to steer public attention away from the Afghan detainees and toward a hopeful message that the long-suffering country is improving..."I'm not here because of the polls,'' Harper said when asked what his visit was designed to achieve. "I'm here because it's the right thing to do.'' He was supported in this by his firm friend Afganistan President Hamid Karzai who warned, " Let us complete that job [i.e. creating a stable nation that will never see another regime like the Taliban, who harboured terrorists] "If we [sic] *** leave half the way, (the Taliban) will re-emerge and haunt you back home whenever they want to." ****'' Per Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre said the government spent "nearly $1.2 billion to purchase 100 new tanks --more than the total funding committed to the reconstruction***** effort. Total spending by this government on the military aspects of this mission has been nearly 10 times greater than on the humanitarian side.'' (6)
  
  
• Notes: * so too are Kitchener-Waterloo i.e.islands in the countryside as note the number of bridges required to bridge the Grand River to get into and out of these cities; ** a tax is a tax is a tax & can Council find way to fine errant deer?;*** we? leave--it's his home ....no, he lived in USA and worked for American oil company, so I guess he could leave ...but did he mean "you? as in Canada pull out its troops"?; **** a veiled threat? ; *****RR has long been puzzled by reconstruction in an active, asymmetrical, non-conventional war zone. Doesn't reconstruction normally follow cease-fire negotiations and proceed with the terms of the cease-fire enforced by the United Nations peacekeeping forces?
  
  
  
• Sources: (1) GREG MERCER, "Two deer die downtown," The Record 23 May 07; (2) GREG MERCER, "Ontario water to be tested for lead," The Record 23 May 07; (3) "Cities driving to toll zones," The Record 23 May 07; (4)http://www.kitchener.ca/gaukelstreetproject.html;
  
• (5)Terry Pender,"Roadwork riles residents," The Record 23 May 07; (6) Karzai assures Harper detainees aren't abused, The Record 23 May 07.
  
• Photo copyright Sandamara Images 2006: view of coal tar cleanup at Charles and Joseph Streets looking east towards Queen Street.
  

Labels: coal tar, politics, water

# posted by ramblingrose @ 4:42 PM