Sludge Watch ==> Quebec City area water -rural residents dying of cancer - TCE contamination

[Maureen Reilly]

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071002.wcontaminate1003/BNStory/National/

Quebec town residents allege contaminated water tied to cancer deaths
RHÉAL SÉGUIN

>From Wednesday's Globe and Mail October 3, 2007 at 1:14 AM EDT

QUEBEC CITY — At age 75, Jeanne D'Arc Chamberland is fighting her fourth
cancer. She lived most of her life in the small town of Shannon, next to
the Valcartier military base, where for decades large amounts of
trichloroethylene or TCE, a probable carcinogen, filtered into the water
supply.

“I saw that a lot of people around us had cancer and were dying, but I
never thought it could be linked to the drinking water,” Ms. Chamberland
said.

Her husband died of cancer 13 years ago at the age of 68. Her 44-year-old
daughter also died of cancer. And her eldest daughter, Lorraine, was
recently treated for breast cancer.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Almost every home in the town's
so-called red zone, the most contaminated area in the community, has at
least one family member that has been diagnosed with cancer.

“My mother died of cancer at the age of 56. My dad died at the age of 64.
And my brother died two years ago at the age of 64; and right now I'm in
remission myself,” said Nancy Kack-Bélanger, 63, who is a resident of the
“red zone” living two doors down from Ms. Chamberland's former home.

“The hardest part for all of us around Shannon is that we lost a lot of
members of our families and we never got to know the truth, we never found
out anything about the military base until recently. And nobody has ever
said to us: ‘I'm sorry,' ” Ms. Kack-Bélanger said. An apology is one goal
of a class-action suit launched this year by residents and former
residents of Shannon, a community of about 4,000, in what is being called
the most important case of contamination in Quebec's history.

The residents are suing the government of Canada and Groupe SNC-Lavalin
Inc. and its subsidiaries, which are currently owners of the property from
which the TCE has filtered into the residents' wells.

Drinking large quantities of TCE over many years is known to cause liver
and kidney damage, heart problems, impaired immune system function and
cancer. The chemical was commonly used as an industrial solvent on the
military base for decades.

The TCE contamination of the Shannon water supply was discovered in 2000
and it has been alleged that it is linked to numerous deaths from cancer
and other diseases among the current and former residents. Lawyers and a
doctor for the residents say that they will have about 300 cancer cases to
present to the court.

“I started writing down the names of the people who had died of cancer. I
realized that the names included members of all the families that had
lived in Shannon for a long time. They drank the water for 20-25 years.
That's how long it takes for TCE to cause certain types of virulent cancer
such as brain tumours,” said retired family doctor Claude Juneau, 75, who
practised for 37 years in Shannon.

Dr. Juneau said he has a case file of about 800 people whose illnesses may
be linked to the TCE, including close to 200 from cancer. And that number
is rising steadily.

“I just learned that a man who lives on Kings Drive in Shannon [part of
the red zone] was operated on for colon cancer three months ago. I didn't
know it. I've counted 25-26 people with cancer on that street alone,” he
said.

In 2004, the Ministry of National Defence provided the community with
$19-million for the development of new water supply, but federal Justice
Department lawyer Francine Robichaud said yesterday that the federal
authorities refuse to accept allegations that the government should be
held responsible for the high cancer rate in Shannon.