Staff and travellers at the La Ronge Airport have been told not to drink water at the facility for almost two years. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

Water pollution

La Ronge seeking legal advice for possible groundwater contamination lawsuit

Apr 25, 2019 | 2:05 PM

La Ronge Council will be seeking a thorough legal opinion about whether the town should take the federal government to court over groundwater contamination at the local airport.

The decision was made Wednesday at a regular council meeting as a motion was passed to engage Pinter and Associations for an opinion. All councillors, with the exception of Matt Klassen and Rex McPhail who weren’t in attendance, voted in favour of it and authorized administration to spend around $12,000 for the study. La Ronge Mayor Ron Woytowich stated the town wants to find out what their chances of winning the case would be, before possibly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a lawsuit.

“Putting it bluntly, the federal government have said they are not liable because the property was turned over to us and we get stuck with everything the way it is,” he said. “Pinter and Associates is the company looking after the whole thing, but they have suggested if we are serious about whether or not we should go after the federal government, we should actually have some sort of advanced study done to see what our chances are and how we should approach it.”

Since 2017, employees and travellers at the La Ronge Airport have been forbidden from drinking the water at the facility after testing came back positive for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Those tests were conducted by Transport Canada after the department contacted the town and asked for permission to examine the water. In 2018, Transport Canada sent a letter to council denying any responsibility for the contamination.

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In an email to larongeNOW from Transport Canada, it stated PFAS were used between the late 1960s and 2002 for firefighting training at some Canadian airports including the one in La Ronge. At the time, PFAS was not known to be a contaminate of concern, but animals exposed to PFAS experienced negative health effects including liver and neurological damage. There is little information on how human health is affected by the contaminant.

Bottled water is currently being supplied at the airport. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

“The water is not safe,” Woytowich stated, adding people have been drinking it not knowing it was contaminated. “We have to find other ways of providing water to the airport. It was good up until the time the water was contaminated by this chemical.”

Transport Canada transferred the La Ronge Airport to the town in 1998 and it’s one of the few municipality-owned airports in the province.

None of the allegations have been tested in court.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno