Latest news with #Nairn
CTV News
a day ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Northern Ont. town continues to oppose radioactive material being relocated in the region
Nairn and Hyman Mayor Amy Mazey joins CTV's Ian Campbell in studio to talk about the latest developments following her town's opposition to the province's plan to transport radioactive material in the region.
CTV News
4 days ago
- Climate
- CTV News
Heavy rain causes major road washout in northern Ont.
Heavy rain caused a severe washout on Minto Street in Nairn and Hyman, leaving a 30-foot drop. Officials warn it's extremely dangerous, yet some drivers ignore barricades. Repairs could take two weeks.
CTV News
15-07-2025
- General
- CTV News
Northern Ont. residents oppose plan to dump radioactive material near drinking water source
About 100 people attended a town hall in Nairn & Hyman Township to discuss plans to move radioactive material from Nipissing First Nation to Agnew Lake. About 100 people attended a town hall in Nairn and Hyman Township to discuss provincial plans to move radioactive material from Nipissing First Nation to Agnew Lake. The township hired a consultant to review the technical report, citing environmental and health concerns. Mayor Amy Mazey urged the province to reconsider, saying the plan isn't the best solution. Residents in Nairn and Hyman and surrounding communities met Monday to discuss concerns about a plan by the province to transfer radioactive material into the area. Concerns were first raised last summer after a local municipal councillor noticed newer back roads and inquired about the upgrades. Nairn and Hyman About 100 residents from Nairn and Hyman and surrounding communities met Monday to discuss a provincial plan to dump radioactive material into tailings area at Agnew Lake, 27 kilometres from the community's drinking water supply. (Angela Gemmill/CTV News) That's when the township discovered that the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Mines were planning to move 18,000 cubic metric tonnes of niobium radioactive materials from Nipissing First Nation to the tailings area at Agnew Lake. Agnew Lake is 27 kilometres from the township's drinking water. 'We felt we really hadn't been consulted,' Nairn and Hyman Mayor Amy Mazey told the crowd. 'We were told the 'naturally occurring radioactive material' was just like gravel.' Last September, the municipality asked the province for more specific information about the project, which was scheduled to begin this summer. 'This is not 'NORM '–naturally occurring radioactive material,' Mazey said. 'It contains hazardous heavy metals -- uranium, niobium, radium 226, cadmium, arsenic, selenium, silver and manganese.' — Nairn and Hyman Mayor Amy Mazey 'It contains hazardous heavy metals -- uranium, niobium, radium 226, cadmium, arsenic, selenium, silver and manganese.' In April, both ministries provided the township with a massive report filled with technical and scientific details. So the township hired environmental consultants Hutchinson Environmental Sciences Ltd. to interpret the report -- and determine what science was missing. That information was presented to residents on Monday, who were then asked for feedback and suggestions on what to do next. Mazey said there are eight studies missing from the report. 'The two most important are a cumulative risk assessment -- what's going to happen when you put uranium tailings on top and niobium tailings together,' she said. Nairn and Hyman Residents in Nairn and Hyman learned last summer that the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Mines were planning to move 18,000 cubic metric tonnes of niobium radioactive materials from Nipissing First Nation to the tailings area at Agnew Lake. (Angela Gemmill/CTV News) 'What will happen? And also a drainage study -- so where is the water going to go, how is it going to leech? All of those things that were outlined that should have been done already, we just haven't seen them.' Township CAO Belinda Ketchabaw said what it boils down to is that the province wants to put radioactive materials in a lake that's already struggling. '(Agnew Lake) site is already in crisis, and they want to bring in more radioactive material to 'fix' the site,' Ketchabaw said. 'It doesn't really add up to me. When the science isn't there, there's no trust. We need to trust what is best for our community.' Safe outcome Ketchabaw said they've learned that some of the niobium material will be taken to a Clean Harbors facility near Sarnia, made for hazardous waste. She said it raises the question that if the material is hazardous enough to be sent to this facility, shouldn't it all be sent there? 'Let's just bring it all there and have a safe outcome for everyone,' Ketchabaw said. Furthering distrust, Mazey said the two ministries often give the community contradictory information. 'It just raises a lot of red flags,' she said. 'I hope that the Ontario government listens to the residents and takes us seriously that this isn't an easy fix ... Just because this is the most convenient solution for the province, it doesn't mean that it's the best solution.' Margaret Lafromboise, who lives close to the Spanish River, said she's concerned about having 'an unsafe radioactive site increased in volume.' 'I think the most constructive and practical thing to do would be to see if the municipality could get financial help to hire a lawyer and initiate an injunction to stop the action immediately,' Lafromboise said. 'As a society, as a province, we are not taking good enough care of our environment, the water and I don't believe our current government is willing to take the action that is required.' Representatives from the provincial ministries were not invited to Monday's town hall. 'When they came to our first meeting, all they did was say 'this is safe,' 'this is gravel.' I don't want to hear that, I want science,' Ketchabaw said. Mazey said they've been told trucks will begin hauling the radioactive material from Nipissing First Nation to the Agnew Lake site in mid-August. 'I hope that we can stop them,' she said.
BBC News
25-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Nairn's challenges with its hungry urban gulls
Like other Scottish seaside communities, Nairn is no stranger to residents and businesses in the former fishing port on the Moray Firth coast believe they have become a serious problem."I know they are part of living beside the sea, and I accept that, but they are quite a danger," says Caroline Mackay, who has lived in Nairn for almost 50 said her family had a nasty encounter with a gull in the town. Ms Mackay said: "My youngest granddaughter came out of the local bakers with a cake."But it wasn't much of a treat because as she was coming out the door down came a sea gull and it landed on her head and scratched her."All it was wanting was the food - it was quite vicious."She added: "I don't remember it being this bad. It feels like it has escalated."A survey by Nairn Business Improvement District (Bid) last year received 85 reports of gull Lucy Harding said: "That was quite worrying."It is an issue I regularly get reports on, of people being attacked for food particularly." Ms Harding believes control measures taken over the past few years have made a difference, but she said the process involved was onerous and like other birds, are protected by law and Scotland's nature body, NatureScot, has strict rules around how they are controlled.A licence is needed for the removal of nests and eggs from the roofs of buildings in areas where gulls are deemed to be a Ms Harding said it was now harder to obtain the necessary said: "In 2023, we had lots of licences and we carried the work out as normal as had done for five years."But last year we were granted a licence far too late."She said local MSPs Fergus Ewing and Douglas Ross helped Nairn Bid secure a licence in time this Conservative MSP Ross has secured a cross-party debate in Holyrood on urban gulls on Thursday. He describes the birds as a menace and is calling for a review of the management of gulls. Nairn Bid has put in place other measures to discourage gulls from nesting in the include reflective devices designed to scare birds away from Harding said: "I have been sent pictures of gulls sitting next to them, and even mating on top of them, but I think they are working."Phil Stuart, who runs local shop Vitamin Sea, said he believed Nairn was not "plagued" by gulls like some other seaside communities were."I think we are doing really well compared to elsewhere," he said."At the moment there are one or two individual birds causing trouble." Five species of gull breed in Scotland - great black-backed, lesser black-backed, herring, common, and black-headed - according to are other species found in Scotland, but they are more are a coastal species, but they have been drawn into towns and cities due to the plentiful places to build nests, a lack of predators - and lots of opportunities to find their natural habitats - the coast and farmland - the birds eat carrion, seeds, fruits, young birds, eggs, small mammals, insects and fish. NatureScot issued 2,633 nest removal licences across Scotland in 2023, and 1,601 in said it understood gulls could sometimes cause problems in towns and cities, but at the same time populations of the birds were facing "serious declines".A spokesperson said: "Over the last five years we have supported many individuals, businesses and communities to better manage gulls without the need to kill the birds or destroy their nests. "As a result, the number of licence applications to destroy nests and eggs and kill chicks has reduced."NatureScot said it would continue to issue licenses where gulls were causing a health and safety spokesperson added: "In the longer-term, we need to find ways to live with gulls and other wildlife." Numbers of herring gulls, a species people are most likely to encounter in urban areas, have fallen by 48% in Scotland since the 1980s, according to RSPB Scotland.A spokesperson said: "Gulls have adapted to live in our urban areas because they are struggling to find food and shelter in the wild. "Killing gulls is not the answer."They added: "This is a charismatic species that has always been a part of our coastal communities, their cry is the sound of the seaside. "People and gulls can coexist so long as we take the right action."
BBC News
25-06-2025
- BBC News
Man jailed 38 years after he pushed a woman into the sea at Nairn
A man who pushed a woman into the sea from a pier in Nairn 38 years ago has been jailed for two McDonald, 76, from Ardersier, assaulted the woman on other occasions over an almost 50-year period between 1975 and High Court in Edinburgh heard he put her life in danger by pushing her into the sea at Nairn Harbour in the summer of 1987.A jury found McDonald guilty on serious assault and threatening behaviour charges following a trial at the High Court in Inverness earlier this year. He was acquitted of charges alleging he carried out sexual assaults. Judge Michael O'Grady KC told McDonald he needed to go to prison for his "disturbing" said: "These episodes demonstrate a disturbing propensity towards violence and cruelty towards your victim."The situation can only be resolved by way of a custodial sentence - that will be one of two years."Before sentence was passed, defence advocate Jonathan Deans told the court that his client had previously run a gardening business.
