A construction site in Montreal’s Pointe-St-Charles neighbourhood is now shut down indefinitely after soil tests confirm there are dangerous contaminants on the property. For weeks, residents complained about the fumes and say they’re relieved work has stopped, but they’re still waiting for answers. Loretta Snoeren lives in the area and has been staying away from the site. She made an exception on Saturday not because she feels safe, but because she wants her concerns heard. “I don’t open my windows because I have a three-month-old at home, so I don’t want him subject to it,” she said. “I don’t want to walk by it. Whatever it is, it doesn’t smell right.” At the corner of Island and Augustin-Cantin streets, the site is now silent. Montreal Public Health says the level of contamination found during excavation is stronger-than-expected. Soil tests detected petroleum hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and heavy metals. Environmental epidemiologist Scott Weichenthal says a couple of months of exposure isn’t likely to significantly raise cancer risk, but his bigger concern is what happens next. “The longer-term risk is probably if they build a building on top of this site and they don’t properly deal with the soil, then the contamination can kind of leach into the indoor air of whatever building they put on top of this,” said Weichenthal. Public health says the initial results do not suggest an immediate health risk, but it says the odours can cause headaches and nausea. The site will remain closed while more test results are reviewed. Weichenthal says the odour, reported symptoms, and the rainbow sheen on standing water all point to a fuel oil leak that may have contaminated the ground for years. With more air testing still to come, he says the right contaminants need to be measured. “They should be measuring for some of the organic compounds, so like volatile organic compounds that are probably what are causing some of the symptoms, like headache and nausea and that kind of upper respiratory tract kind of irritation,” said Weichenthal. For many nearby residents, the lingering uncertainty is just as frustrating as the odour. “We were never told anything like ‘oh you should keep your windows closed,’” said resident Katie Scribner. “We don’t know if there’s any danger of what we’re inhaling.” “How much of this information is actually being dished out?” asked Tay-Son Nguyen. “How much do we know of what’s going on and how much information will they be sharing?” For Snoeren, the pause in construction brings some relief, but not yet peace of mind. “Right now, we’re still sitting in it,” she said. “Nothing’s it’s just stopped. but it hasn’t stopped for us. We’re still breathing it in.”
