Residents fed up with noise from idled Donkin mine
The Donkin Mine has been closed for more than a year, but residents who live near the shuttered mine site say they are still living with noise that is bad enough it is causing them to lose sleep.
"We can hear it loud enough that it wakes us up in the middle of the night," says South Head, N.S., resident Michael Lea, who lives about seven kilometres across the water from the mine site.
Lea says the noise is coming from the idled Donkin Mine, which closed in March 2020. Since then, it's been in maintenance mode – with a handful of employees onsite keeping the ventilation system running. Lea says he and other members of the Cow Bay Environmental Coalition held a meeting Tuesday night and that people are simply fed up.
"To be honest, I'm past the stage of being nice. I'm actually angry. Because it's been close to two years," Lea told CTV Atlantic.
The area's councillor says he's been getting several complaints a week about the Donkin Mine noise and that they're coming from people who live all across the widespread, rural area of eastern Cape Breton.
"Since I've been elected, the Donkin Mine has been my most prominent file -- there's no question about it," says James Edwards, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality councillor for District 8.
Edwards adds he and other elected officials have spoken with representatives from Kameron Coal, the company that owns the Donkin Mine, but so far, a solution hasn't been found.
"The mine is looking at a noise reduction model from a firm in the United Kingdom that they're hoping to utilize, but that's been going on for several months now," Edwards says.
Meanwhile, the area's MLA has also been fielding plenty of complaints on the file. "Personally, I feel a great deal of frustration with the lack of progress," says Brian Comer, Progressive Conservative MLA for Sydney River-Mira-Louisbourg.
Comer says he's reached out to the ministers of Environment and Climate Change, as well as Energy and Mines, but adds no one with regulatory authority to fix the problem has come to visit.
"There's no specific timelines or accountability, which I think is the significant issue with the community," Comer said.
CTV Atlantic's attempts to reach Kameron Coal for comment were unsuccessful.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Which Canadian cities have the highest and lowest grocery prices?
Where you live plays a big factor in what you pay at the grocery store. And while it's no secret the same item may have a different price depending on the store, city or province, we wanted to see just how big the differences are, and why.
'State or state-sponsored actor' believed to be behind B.C. government hacks
The head of British Columbia’s civil service has revealed that a “state or state-sponsored actor” is behind multiple cyber-security incidents against provincial government networks.
Swarm of 20,000 bees gather around woman’s car west of Toronto
A swarm of roughly 20,000 bees gathered around a woman’s car in the parking lot of Burlington Centre.
Mother assaulted by stranger while breastfeeding baby in her car: Vancouver police
A person was arrested in East Vancouver Thursday after allegedly entering a car while a mother was breastfeeding her four-month-old boy.
More than half the Canadians once detained in Syrian camps for suspected ISIS family members have returned home
A total of 29 Canadians have been freed from detention camps in northeast Syria and brought back to Canada since human rights advocates began lobbying for their release years ago.
Rare severe solar storm Friday could bring spectacular aurora light show across Canada
A rare and severe solar storm is expected to bring spectacular displays of the northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, across much of Canada and parts of the United States on Friday night.
Canada abstains from Palestinian UN membership vote but supports two-state solution
Canada was one of 25 countries that abstained from a United Nations vote on Palestinian membership that passed with overwhelming support on Friday.
Amish youth experience a rite of passage called Rumspringa. It’s not what you might think
The idea of “Rumspringa” has a specific spot in the American imagination. A rite of passage for young people in some Amish communities, Rumspringa is seen by most outsiders as a wild time away from strict Amish rules, when teenagers can experiment with the modern vices of the world.
Djokovic needs medical attention after getting knocked on the head by a water bottle at Italian Open
Novak Djokovic needed medical attention after apparently getting knocked on the head by a water bottle after a win at the Italian Open on Friday.