Port Colborne

Port Colborne
Location of Port Colborne in the Niagara Region
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Region	Niagara
Area
• Total	122.0 km2 (47.09 sq mi)

Port Colborne (2006 population 18,599) is a city on Lake Erie, at the southern end of the Welland Canal, in the Niagara Region of southern Ontario, Canada near Niagara Falls. The city is named after Sir John Colborne, a British war hero and the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada at the time of the opening of the First Welland Canal.

The city grew up around the canal, and is home to one of the world's longest canal locks at 1,380 ft (420 m). The lock is very flat at an elevation of one to four ft depending on the water level in lake Erie. The Welland Canal joins lake Erie shortly south of the lock and is crossed by one of very few remaining lift bridges on the canal. The annual Canal Days festival with live music, an antique car show, food from around the globe and other attractions attracts large numbers of visitors.

A curiosity in town is the "incredible shrinking mill" which is not a mill, it is actually a grain elevator. When traveling east on Lakeshore road, the mill at the horizon seems close, but seems to move farther away as one drives closer to it.[1]

To the east of downtown lies Sherkston Shores resort, offering over 2 miles of sandy beach, a privately held campground, minigolf, waterslides and other attractions.

Golf enthusiasts can choose from 3 golf courses open from April until late fall. Port Colborne Country Club, Whisky Run Golf Club, and Coyote Golf Club.

There are two high schools in Port Colborne, Port Colborne High School (commonly called Port High) and the Lakeshore Catholic High School.

Recently, the Port Colborne Nautical Heritage Museum opened up the "Marie Semley Research Wing", commemorating the long-standing efforts of a local resident who devoted hours to the museum.

Inco

The International Nickel Company (INCO) has long been one of the city's main employers, since it the opening of a refinery in 1918. Taking advantage of inexpensive hydroelectricity from generating stations at nearby Niagara Falls, the refinery produced electro-refined nickel for the war effort, and grew to employ over 2,000 workers by the 1950s. Cutbacks in operations and increasing factory automation have reduced the workforce to its present day total of 190. [2]

Environmental Concerns

Emissions from Inco's base metal refinery, closed in 1984, resulted in soils contaminated with concentrations of nickel, copper and cobalt above the Ontario Ministry of the Environment's "soil remediation criteria." [3] However, two studies, one in 1997 and another in 1999 found "[no] adverse health effects which may have resulted from environmental exposures." [4] After a series of public meetings between the City, the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) and Inco, it was decided to perform a Community-Based Risk Assessment, a novel process designed to determine whether the contamination poses a threat to the current, past, or future residents of Port Colborne, and what Inco must do to clean up the contaminated areas. [5] As of 2006 this process is only now concluding, although a few properties deemed to be at high risk have already been remediated.

With lead plaintiff Wilf Pearson, some residents launched a Class-Action Lawsuit against Inco in 2001 [6] [7] seeking $750 million in damages to health, property value, and quality-of-life. Although this suit failed to be certified in 2002, [8], it was subsequently modified to limit the class, and focus solely on devaluation of property and was certified on appeal on November 18, 2005. [9] Often cited as the 'largest environmental lawsuit in [10] this suit is now expected to go to trial in 2008.

Demographics

N/A = Data Not available

Communities

• Bethel
• Cedar Bay
• Gasline
• Lorraine
• Pine Crest Point
• Port Colborne
• Sherkston
• Sherkston Beaches
• Shisler Point
• Silver Bay
• Humberstone

External links

• Port Colborne website
• Port Colborne Economic & Tourism Development Corporation website
• Niagara Peninsula Communities website
• Port Colborne Sailors the Jr.B hockey team
• Port Colborne Vitamins & Health Food The Healthy Cupboard