A3

By ADAM BOWIE
bowie.adam@dailygleaner.com

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Southwest-Miramichi Liberal MLA Rick Brewer says he's had a few rough nights worrying about four cases of arsenic contamination in Blackville.

Four village residents have elevated levels of arsenic in their blood and Public Health officials haven't been able to determine the source of the contamination. The four people live within 30 metres of each other.

Brewer, the human resources minister and minister responsible for aboriginal affairs, said he has spent a few late-night evenings on the phone with Health Minister Mike Murphy this week, and he said the province is working hard to resolve the situation.

"I've actually been losing sleep over this because I'm concerned about the people who live in this area. It's definitely my top priority to put these people's minds at ease," he said.

"I'm very confident that Public Health will do everything within their power to find the source and do the testing that is required."

But some residents are criticizing the Department of Health for not releasing a public advisory about the problem sooner and for not making the free well water testing program open to the entire village.

Murphy declined to comment on those issues.

Blackville Mayor Glen Hollowood said his phone has been ringing off the hook because people are worried. He said the community wants to find the source of the contaminants so they know what they're up against.

"But it's too bad if this arsenic (has been) in the area for a long time and nobody checked," he said.

"Maybe people have been dying of that for years. We don't know. I don't have (any) idea because this is the first time it's ever come up."

Blackville Coun. Jake Stewart said he believes the province is trying to downplay concerns voiced by members of the community.

"The (news) releases are using a lot of words like 'limited,' 'normal,' 'miniscule' and 'reliability' to try to sway the public's awareness of the severity of the issue," he said.

"They actually went as far to suggest that so far no water tests have produced results. But there's only been one or two tests (analyzed so far)."

About 30 well water samples were taken earlier this week.

Stewart said the province didn't take a significant number of water samples until Thursday, so it's too early to rule well water out as a source of the arsenic contamination.

Stewart said residents are asking him when the testing might be expanded to include the rest of the community.

"While the government bides time doing the most basic testing, they're probably saving money when they should be saving lives," he said.

Stewart said there's a history of unexplained illnesses in young children who live in the same neighbourhood as the four affected residents.

Dr. Denis Allard, regional medical officer of health, said the community shouldn't be quick to panic and lump every physical problem to the arsenic contamination.

"I would say it's probably very unlikely (those illnesses are related)," he said.

"People at one point hear about something and they start to attribute all kinds of other symptoms, or things they might have, to arsenic. Out of the four cases, I believe there's only one that seems to have some symptoms that could possibly be attributed to his high arsenic level."