Turner Valley - Gas plant unsafe for children and pregnant women

Turner Valley’s Mayor Kelly Tuck feels confident that Alberta Community Development has been carrying out its responsibilities to maintain a controversial historic gas plant site.
On the other hand, local environmentalist Mark Chapman says the province and the town have been negligent in keeping the public informed on the issue.
“Why have there been no warning signs posted?” Chapman asked. “The bank that is eroding is used as a pathway to the river. It is unsafe.”
He also points to a letter written by the Calgary Health Region (CHR) to the gas plant manager which recommends pregnant women and children be restricted from the site until the mercury is cleaned up.
Peers Mikkelsen, manager of environmental and health services for the CHR, said a letter was forwarded to Alberta Community Development in August after a CHR risk assessment officer reviewed environmental studies performed at the site.
“The background mercury levels exceed safe exposure limits,” Mikkelsen explained. “We thought (restricting tour visitors) would be prudent until the soil is reclaimed.”
Mercury is present in both the soil and buildings where instrumentation was broken by vandals, spilling mercury onto the floor.
Approximately 600 to 800 people visited the site each summer over the past two years. Reclamation work to seal cracks in concrete containing mercury and soil excavation is expected to be completed by next year’s tour season.
Tuck said the town has worked in partnership with the province to ensure the Turner Valley Gas Plant Historic site is reclaimed to environmental and historic standards.
“We have had a long-established relationship with the provincial government,” Tuck explained. “The province has been very diligent in the clean up. Every single request we have made they have followed through on.”
Site manager Gary Duguay said the province took over the management of the gas plant in 1988 at the town’s request with the understanding that a local group would be able to raise substantial funds towards the reclamation work.
“That never panned out,” Duguay said.
Over the past 10 years the province has been studying the site and has recently been completing plans to wrap up reclamation work.
This spring contaminants were seen seeping into the Sheep River as erosion brought the banks to the edge of the gas plant site.
However, detectable levels of contaminants have not been identified by a monitoring system in place in the river.
Alberta Community Development and the Town of Turner Valley are attempting to schedule a public meeting to address the environmental issues related to the gas plant.
Duguay said he is meeting with town administrators next week to discuss the meeting.


By Darlene Casten
Staff reporter


from, the OKOTOKS WESTERN WHEEL, September 24, 2003