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From http://www.timminspress.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentID=236823&catname=Local+News

Attawapiskat declares state of emergency; Water quality major concern

Michael Peeling - October 19, 2006

Attawapiskat First Nation declared a state of emergency over the its water quality Wednesday after a series of public meetings and what some officials called a lack of government response to their requests for aid.

The results of water-quality testing done by First Nations Engineering Ltd. in August and symptoms of health problems in children and elders have the band council and citizens concerned that the water quality is deteriorating further.

"The band council had a meeting yesterday and decided to declare a state of emergency because we can't wait anymore to deal with our water issues and concerns about our reservoir," Deputy Chief Miriam Wesley told The Daily Press on Wednesday evening.

"Our sewage problems have been neglected too long, so we had a meeting with our public this afternoon, and they are also asking something be done right away."

Chief Mike Carpenter says the community is worried about the health risks from the water.

"We are very concern about this, especially over health problems that have appeared in children, elders rashes, infections, and other skin problem," Carpenter said in a press release.

Wesley said the province is sending up representatives from the Ontario Clean Water Agency today to deal with Attawapiskat's water worries.

She also said the Ministry of Health is sending people to do another water assessment on Saturday.

"So the government is responding, it's just a matter of whether or not they are going to do it," Wesley said.

In the public meeting Wednesday, residents complained to the tribal council of suffering from rashes and dizziness, a change in the taste of the drinking water.

The people of Attawapiskat ask that the government brings enough bottled water and an emergency water purification system while their water treatment system is assessed and made safe.

The tribal council and residents feel the water continues to be inadequately treated despite having a new water plant commissioned in 2001.

The reports from FNES showed the water contains 6.1 mg per litre of carbon instead of the legislated level of 5.9.

FNES project manager Mike Murray said a high level of carbon in the water can be a problem when chlorine is added, which he says is a common practice across all of Ontario.

The carbon and chlorine can form carcinogens - cancer-causing substances in the water.

FNES also tested for trihalomethanes, a combination of chemicals that can also be carcinogenic. The test result was 0.17 mg per litre, 0.07 higher than the standard acceptable level.

"Health Canada did some follow-up testing and they indicated that their levels of water quality were within acceptable ranges," Murray said.

The Health Canada test for trihalomethanes showed a level of 0.097 mg per litre, which Murray says could be accounted for by the shallowness of the lake from which Attawapiskat gets its water and its lack of contact with the air in the winter.

"Their raw water source changes characteristics throughout the year, which is one of the things that makes it more difficult to treat," Murray said.

As well, Wesley said the people of Attawapiskat want to decrease the high sodium level of the water, which can contribute to hypertension.

She said that as of Sept. 22, Health Canada had deemed the water drinkable, with no E. Coli, but the trihalomethanes and sodium are still too high, especially during the winter.

The band is also concerned that the water reservoir's close proximity to a landfill site and the airport are having ill-effects on the drinking water.

No plans have been made to evacuate Attawapiskat.

From http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061020.ONTWATER20/TPStory/TPNational/Ontario/

Reserve homes lack access to water, report says
KAREN HOWLETT

TORONTO -- The vast majority of homes on a remote native reserve in Northwestern Ontario have no access to basic water and sewage services, forcing most residents to use decrepit wooden outhouses and carry their drinking water by pail, according to a report released yesterday.

The primitive conditions on the Pikangikum reserve, a fly-in community about 200 kilometres north of Kenora, pose a danger to the health of its 2,300 residents, warns the report, prepared by the Northwestern Health Unit. The report says the four staff members who spent two days assessing the situation at the native community this year are all too familiar with the tainted tap-water plight on many reserves across the province.

"Nor are we naive, but we were all shocked at the extent of the neglect we witnessed," Dr. Pete Sarsfield, the health unit's chief executive officer, says in the report.

The reserve has a modern and adequate water treatment plant. The problem is that the plant is not connected to 95 per cent of the reserve's 367 houses. As a result, most residents travel to the plant to collect drinking water. But the plant is not accessible to many residents, leaving them drinking untreated water from the lake, the report says. Plastic containers used to transport drinking water to the local school and its 780 students are not cleaned or disinfected between fillings.

The majority of outhouses on the reserve are full and overflowing with sewage and many do not have doors, leaving residents at "high risk of illness," the report says. Health-care workers noted a higher incidence of gastrointestinal infections, as well as skin and urinary tract infections, than in other communities.

The report was tabled by the New Democrats in the legislature yesterday, one day after the government's Clean Water Act passed third and final reading.

The legislation is aimed at protecting drinking water from contamination.

The government may say that everyone in Ontario has a basic right to clean drinking water, but the legislation will do nothing to protect the residents of Pikangikum, NDP Leader Howard Hampton said.

"If you're an aboriginal person, you don't have that fundamental right," he said.

The conditions at Pikangikum are an eerie reminder of the contaminated water crisis at Kashechewan a year ago, when the Ontario government declared a state of emergency and brought out residents in need of medical attention.

"I continually write to [Indian Affairs Minister] Jim Prentice, saying you better take your responsibility seriously," David Ramsay, the minister responsible for aboriginal affairs in Ontario, told reporters. "We're very, very concerned about this and don't think the feds should be abdicating their responsibility."

But a spokesman for Mr. Prentice said the minister has taken steps to address the problem, including setting up an expert panel to come up with regulations to ensure there is safe drinking water on reserves across Canada.