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Dec.19 - Dec.26, 2004 |
The Mystery of Melville Park
Paul de Buono unearths a 2000 environmental study that was never made public
By Francesco Riondino
Originally Published: 2003-12-14
This tale began last week, when Vaughan City Councillors and some journalists (at Tandem, Toronto Star, and Vaughan Citizen) received an e-mail from Paul De Buono, the founder of vaughanwatch.ca, a website that proclaims its dedication to watching what goes on at City Hall in the 'City Above Toronto'.
In his e-mail, De Buono mentions a report titled Methane Monitoring - Melville Park about a study investigating a possible ground contamination in a small city park just north of Major MacKenzie and on the nearby Michael Cranny Elementary School Divine Mercy Catholic Elementary School.
The tone of the message was alarming: Paul De Buono asked to see the report, compiled three years ago but never published, in compliance with the Freedom of Information Act. The subject, wrote De Buono, "goes to the very heart of whether the City, when it had the opportunity to do so, was serious in protecting residents from potential dangers the City was made aware of."
"If maximum transparency is a real Council objective," continued De Buono, "this Report will be released within 30 days of the request. [...] The 30-day freedom of information window means that the December 8 Committee of the Whole and the December 15 Council are the only opportunities for you to deal with the request if you [the Councillors] individually wish Council to become involved in releasing the Report."
The story, as referred by De Buono, began in 1997, when "a consultant found clay, silt and traces of reddish, green and brown fill emitting a slight petroleum odour in an area or areas of Melville Park. The City of Vaughan had the soil removed from the park."
Local residents in the year 2000, following media stories in June 2000 which drew attention to the above, wanted further testing of the area to be sure that there was nothing contaminated buried in the large community property consisting of Melville Park and the properties immediately south and north of Melville Park where the two schools are.
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