Nova Scotia’s environment minister is set to meet with residents of Harrietsfield, N.S., on Monday to discuss contaminated drinking water in the community — something that one resident says the past four environment ministers refused to do.
Marlene Brown, an outspoken resident says that she hopes the meeting will prompt Minister Iain Rankin — along with other politicians in attendance — to act on the stories they’ll hear.
“What I’d like to see tonight is the environment minister to go back to his department with a game plan.” READ MORE: Harrietsfield contaminated water case adjourned for 12th time The provincial government says the defunct RDM Recycling site in Harrietsfield is leaching contaminants into the groundwater which is reaching the wells of nearby homes.
In 2016, then-environment minister, Margaret Miller, issued cleanup orders to the two numbered companies that operated the site between 2002 and 2013.
St. Paul’s Church is on city water and has provided that water to residents who have contaminated wells.
@globalhalifax pic.twitter.com/9Ix5aZaevk — Alexa MacLean (@AlexaMacLean902) May 14, 2018 On April 28, 2017, Brown filed for a private prosecution under the Nova Scotia Environment Act to two companies that operated the defunct RDM Recycling site between 2002 and 2013.
Brown claimed the companies did not abide by a ministerial order to clean up the site.
WATCH: After years of living with unsafe drinking water, Harrietsfield residents ‘forced’ to lay charges Brown has claimed the recycling plant is leaching contaminants into the groundwater, which is reaching the wells of nearby homes.
She says 50 homes have been impacted, but the province only placed a water-monitoring program on 18 of them.
The nearby St. Paul’s Church — which is on the HRM’s water supply -has been providing water to those in need through access to an outside tap for the last four years.