The provincial environment ministry says it will test soil samples around the GE Hitachi uranium processing plant in Toronto’s west end, bowing to months of public pressure.

“The sampling and testing is being done in response to concerns expressed by the community and the request for soil testing made by Toronto’s medical officer of health,” said ministry spokesperson Kate Jordan in an email.

Dr. David McKeown, Toronto’s medical officer of health, sent a letter to the environment ministry in February, saying the tests were necessary to restore public confidence. The ministry “would provide the most credible and reliable test results,” wrote McKeown.

The factory on Lansdowne Ave. near Dupont St. compresses uranium dioxide powder, which is shipped in sealed barrels, into pellets. The pellets are sent to a Peterborough facility where they are assembled into fuel bundles.

The city’s public health department has reviewed air and soil tests from the GE Hitachi plant for at least six years and has never found a problem.

But the company takes its own samples and sends them to a lab for analysis. Residents around the Lansdowne factory want the ministry to verify those test results.

The soil sampling will be done this summer, says Jordan, but the precise timing hasn’t been determined. The ministry will make the test results public and will “take any appropriate steps when the results of the testing are available,” says Jordan.

Most residents were shocked to find out the plant existed when the Star first wrote about it last November.

“A huge number of people in our community didn’t know there was a uranium processing plant in our back yard,” said Jonah Schein, MPP for Davenport.

Schein said his office has been fielding dozens of calls and emails from anxious residents worried this summer about disturbing the soil around their homes.

“We put out a letter again requesting the ministry look into soil testing here,” said Schein. “We want some public oversight on this.”

Barbara Lachapelle, a Toronto environmental health officer who has reviewed the GE Hitachi data, says uranium levels are well below accepted standards.

Samples from the community in 2011 showed uranium at 2.3 to 2.5 parts per million, a level that can normally occur in soil throughout Ontario, says Lachapelle. The accepted standard in soil around a residence or in a park is 23 parts per million.

The highest levels, around 15 parts per million, were on GE Hitachi property, says Lachapelle, suggesting the uranium emitted by the plant’s stack during processing doesn’t go very far.

Lachapelle toured the plant twice this year with local federal and provincial politicians as well as representatives from the environment ministry and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

“I’ve seen how uranium is handled and it’s a pretty enclosed system,” she said. “There really shouldn’t be any fugitive emissions, such as dust from an open door, coming from the plant.” Workers wear lab coats and safety boots.

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Lachapelle, who is reviewing how GE Hitachi takes its samples, says there are no current safety concerns, but she still believes there is a need for independent testing.

“One of our roles is to respond to concerns in the community. And we hear those concerns,” said Lachapelle. “We felt if the community needed additional data, or additional information that would bring them comfort, then that’s something that we could facilitate.”