CCRA PRESIDENT Bob Baron: May 2001 This has been quite a month. Since last report, the presidents of the local community associations (CCRA, PUVHA and WRCA) have met with Councillor Moeser to arrange the first town-hall meeting on April 19th, to discuss the Port Union Village Common and the development that will surround it. Issues including retail/commercial, traffic flow and control, the Common as a terminus on the Waterfront Trail, washrooms in the park and the impact of the Common on the local households will all be discussed. By this time, the meeting will have been held and the results known. If you missed the meeting, check out the details on the CCRA website at http://www.centennialcra.com It's disappointing and upsetting that we have confirmed even more friable asbestos has been found at the south end of the Yellow Moon (YM) property. For the last two years, a project has been underway to clean up the portion of the Manson site not already developed, including the safe dismantling and removal of the old Manson factory. Long-time residents will know that the whole site was to have been remediated back in the 1980's under the supervision of the Ministry of the Environment (MOE). When my wife and I first bought our home here in 1990, I checked with the MOE and was informed that the Manson/ former Johns Manville site was no longer a health hazard and that there was no more evidence of asbestos in our area than in any other part of the city. Too bad that's not true! When Coscan/Brookfield started to develop the western sector of the Manson site, it was necessary to systematically remove significant amounts of friable asbestos (the kind that easily breaks down and gets blown around in the wind) as well as other asbestos products and other contaminants before the actual development could proceed. This happened only because of the efforts of this community association. When Yellow Moon wanted to start developing its portion of the Manson site, the CCRA once again was instrumental in lobbying for the establishment of the Manson Factory Demolition and site Remediation Project. The project team includes Candec Consultants Ltd. (the project manager), a consulting engineering firm hired by Yellow Moon, the MOE, the Ministry of Labour (MOL), the City of Toronto Peer Reviewer, City of Toronto Building Division, City of Toronto Public Health, Councillor Ron Moeser and representatives from the three community associations. Candec developed the removal process which was reviewed by various government agencies including the MOE. Candec filed its final report to Yellow Moon and it was made available to the City's Peer Reviewer on April 3rd. The report claims that all asbestos has now been removed from the site which can now be certified for future development. This is simply not true! On March 28th, a member of our community went by the site and found what he thought was asbestos lying on the surface. This find was reported but the MOE and MOL inspectors could not find the material. A second trip to the site was arranged and all members of the project team were asked to attend. Inspectors from the MOL, the City 's Peer Reviewer office , Councillor Moeser, the president of the WRCA and myself accompanied the resident who made the discovery to the area where asbestos was clearly visible. The inspectors took samples which were verified the next day as being friable asbestos. More asbestos and transite pipe were visible on Yellow Moon's property but because the MOE inspector didn't attend, we could not get permission to trespass. Only the MOE have the authority to inspect the site without specific permission. Since then, the MOE have taken samples from the Yellow Moon site which have all been tested positive for asbestos in concentrations of up to 50%. I've contacted the Minister of the Environment, asking that all work on the Yellow Moon site be stopped until further investigation of the site determines the extent of asbestos remaining and also requested the Minister to provide us with an action plan for remediating this site properly, once and for all. To read Bob's letter to the Minister - click here.