Warnings about PCB-contaminated game meat near the Swan Hills hazardous waste plant have not completely shut down local hunters or meat processors, says one meat cutter.
“For most people around here, that’s their food source,” said the local meat cutter, who would not give her name. “I don’t think it’s had any effect (on their business), but people are just watching and waiting and listening.”
In mid-December the Alberta health department told people not to eat game or fish caught within 30 kilometres of the Swan Hills plant, which incinerates toxic waste. A deer shot near the plant was tested for PCB contamination after an Oct. 16 leak. It showed PCB levels well above suggested maximum amounts, and other tested wildlife also showed high levels. Some scientists think PCBs, a type of industrial chemical, are human health hazards.
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Provincial health director John Waters has told local people to avoid eating game caught near the plant, but has not suggested it be destroyed.
“Keep your meat in storage,” he said.
Waters said the 30 km ban gives a “very wide margin of safety.” He expects the health department will dramatically reduce the size of the banned zone once other tests are completed this month. He said people who have eaten meat from animals caught near the plant are not in any particular danger.
He said there is almost no chance the toxic leak contaminated farmland that lies south and east of the plant. There is about 60 km of forest and wilderness between the farmland and the plant, and “there is no evidence (the contamination) extends more than a few kilometres.”
The Alberta government waited a month to tell the public about the October leak. The Information and Privacy Commissioner’s office is investigating whether that delay breaches provincial regulations, said Frank Work, a lawyer with the commission.
He said the head of a public body has to disclose information about “a risk of significant harm to the environment or to the health or safety of the public.” The head of a local Indian band complained about the delay, so the commission is investigating, Work said.
The meat cutter said any threat to the safety of game meat is a serious issue for local Indians.
“One hunter will go out and get enough meat for his aunts and uncles and children,” she said. “That’s their meat supply.”
