The province is investigating an allegation of another mercury dump site near the riverside paper mill upstream from Grassy Narrows First Nation, the Star has learned.The mill, now owned by Domtar, got the tip by phone on May 10 from a former employee of a previous mill owner. The tipster alleged that decades ago mercury was dumped in barrels and buried in a plastic-lined pit. He said he helped prepare the alleged dumping site.When Grassy Narrows Chief Rudy Turtle got the news, he said, “I was upset, and scared for my people who eat the fish from the river that flows by that site.”The alleged dump site is in a grassy clearing surrounded by a stand of jackpine trees off Johnston Road. Environment Ministry staff went to the site with the former employee but “further research” is needed, a spokesperson said.The site is distinct, and about a kilometre north, from the one described by Kas Glowacki, a retired casual mill labourer who came forward out of “guilt” in 2015. He said that in 1972 he was part of a crew that dumped 50 drums of salt and mercury. Glowacki had told the Star that some drums had been carelessly pushed off a flatbed truck and toppled into a pit that was lined with polyurethane sheets.The Star and environmental group Earthroots went to the Glowacki site west of Gordon Road, dug holes and had the soil tested, and in early 2017 found mercury readings in the soil that were up to 80 times natural levels. The province then conducted tests in the area, confirmed mercury was in the soil and with an electromagnetic surveying device detected possibly buried metal. It said in the winter of 2018 that excavation would begin that spring.Ontario has yet to excavate to confirm the dump site and see how much mercury is there and if it is getting into groundwater that flows to the river.“The government says that they consider this new report of mercury dumping to be credible. But we are still waiting for basic answers about ...
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