In 1916, the Cheek-Neal Coffee Company began using the “good to the last drop” slogan to advertise their product brand, Maxwell House Coffee. It is one of the most famous slogan’s and longest lasting slogan’s in advertising today. Recently, the citizen’s of Regina were alerted to high levels of lead contamination in the city’s drinking water. In fact, the citizens’ last week found out that they have one of the highest levels of contaminates in their water in the whole country leaving – definitely “not good to the last drop” Read more at Lead levels comparable to Flint, Mich. found in Regina drinking water.
The site history is as follows: in 1916 the Regina Imperial Oil Refinery commenced operation, which is now the site the Regina Transit Centre, Regina Food Bank, and the First Years Learning Center (daycare facility). In 1978 the City purchased the whole refinery site from Imperial Oil and initially rezoned and sold the southern portion to Dairy Producers Cooperative. Who operated their creamery on the contaminated site, exhausting fumes, for 20 years, so in 2000, they “got out of Dodge” moved to a new facility in Saskatoon, they found it impossible to sell their multi-million dollar facility investment in the Regina facility, due to site contamination, so in 2004 they dumped off the entire facility on the Regina Food Bank, a non-profit organization, and instead took a sizable donation tax write-off to help with their new creamery facility operating in Saskatoon, and avoided the horrendous remediation cost of their former Regina facility.
In the early 1920’s, Imperial Oil constructed an oil refinery in Calgary, which was only two-thirds the size of the older Regina Imperial Oil Refinery. From 1975 to 1979 both refineries were closed and abandoned leaving buried and leaking pipelines, tanks, cisterns, along with electrical conduit, and foundation structures. Limited refinery’s site contamination tests confirm the presents of lead from leaded gasoline, phenol, cyanide, other carcinogenic petrochemicals, and hydrocarbons, along with indications of PCB substances.
- the contaminants in our drinking water and the lack of urgency to fix the problem, and;
- the ignored contaminated lands of the former Regina Imperial Oil Refinery, that is daily impacting the two underlying aquifers discharging contaminates into Wascana’s water system, being used to water the park grass the larger community walks, and lays on during the summer.
- the health impact on the people working within the area, especially on the pre-school children happily playing unprotected within their contaminated pay-yard as they swing on safe play structures;
- that the City is just incompetent and inept at dealing with real issues, or maybe the City is too preoccupied with collecting fines generated by parking, photo-laser, seat belts, cell phones, alcohol related offences, and overzealous regulations, instead of insuring the Regina environment is safe and not shorting our lives.
One would think the Regina City Fire Department would be concerned about the explosive potential posed by abandoned pipelines, still containing flammable refinery substances, and hydrogen sulfide gas implications potentially being entrapped under concrete floor slabs, or in buried tanks and cisterns, which continue to exist on this former refinery site to this very today. Yet the City Fire Department, mandated to deal with hazardous materials, has been instructed by City administration to look the other way, and not get involved with the hazardous conditions associated to this former refinery site. Basically the City of Regina has its head in the sand, wants to keep the lid on this festering problem, and simply does not want to know how dangerous this site really is to the entire City. They want to be able to deny…“they knew the site was a danger to health and safety”, as their line of defence in their attempt to avoid what could be a monumental liability matter regarding heath issues associated to 35-years of transit workers, 20-years of dairy workers, 15-years of food bank workers and daycare children illnesses, and the list goes on.
Certainly, the first step in dealing with any of these issues is to admit there has been a longstanding problem, relative to this particular area of the City, due to contamination issues collateral to the Regina Imperial Oil Refinery site. In order to rectify this situation, the City of Regina and Imperial Oil need to comply with the 2008 request submitted by the Saskatchewan Minister of Environment, to complete a Phase II Environmental Site Assessment on the entire area, which is necessary to determine contamination location, and type, throughout on the site and remediation extent. This should also include Imperial Oil Refinery’s disposal grounds located between the Staples Call Centre on Winnipeg Street and Leon’s Furniture, just South of Ring Road.
It is important for all Regina citizens to take the initiative, call your City Councillor, call the Chief of the Fire Department, and while you’re at it…call the City Manager, and demand a Phase II Environmental Site Assessment be initiated on the entire former Imperial Oil Refinery area, because it is important to the health and safety of the whole City. Only in Regina, can you find a 60 plus year old refinery that has never been tested for contamination, before redevelopment is permitted.