GRASSY NARROWS FIRST NATION— Environment Ministry scientists have started extensive testing of groundwater and are bringing in sonar to look for buried drums that a former labourer said he helped fill with mercury and salt and dumped in a pit in Dryden, Ontario 40 years ago.

With Premier Kathleen Wynne saying she is “deadly serious” about addressing the mercury contamination of Grassy Narrows First Nation, Environment Minister Glen Murray and Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Minister David Zimmer visited here Monday and formed a plan with community leaders to deal with the issue.

The plan also involves forming a political leadership group that includes the ministers as well as Grassy Narrows chief Simon Fobister Sr.

This political group — a “point of accountability,” Murray called it — will oversee field studies and testing to determine the scope of the mercury contamination and to best understand how to clean the rivers and lakes polluted by mercury.

Murray and Zimmer got a tour of Grassy Narrows, then headed to the powwow grounds to listen to a drum circle and then speak to the community gathered there.

“This meeting today should be taken as a very, very strong and serious sign that the government is committed to working with your leadership to address this problem. It is a commitment that we will stand behind,” Zimmer told the crowd.

“We will take . . . immediate steps to start the process to deal with this situation here. . . . We are going to address this problem.”

The backdrop was a wooden shed adorned with yellow flags that read “No Mercury” and featured a skull and cross bones.

“The (recent scientific) report said that we have a lot to field work to do. We have to go out in the rivers and lakes and we have to figure out exactly where mercury is,” Murray said. “We have to get to the bottom of this.”

Ontario will contribute $300,000 to support water, sediment and fish sampling in a stretch of river that Grassy Narrows Council has identified as a top priority.

“We want scientists out in the rivers and lakes in the next weeks,” Murray said of the English-Wabigoon Remediation Project, named after the river system that in the 1960s brought mercury 100 km downstream from a pulp and paper mill in Dryden, Ont.

The mercury poisoning of the residents of Grassy Narrows and the fish they eat has been well documented after the old Dryden mill, now closed, dumped 10 tonnes of mercury — a potent neurotoxin — in to the English-Wabigoon River system between 1962 and 1970. The government opted to allow the river to recover from the dump naturally, even though an expert report at the time advised that the fish in the river would be contaminated for generations if the mercury wasn’t cleaned up.

“I am willing to look for ways to remediate the situation, if that is at all possible. I’m deadly serious about this. I want this to happen,” Wynne said Monday at Queen’s Park.

Wynne’s comments and the ministers’ visit here came on the heels of two recent developments:

Last month a government-funded report commissioned by Grassy Narrows was released. It cautioned that despite the passage of time, mercury levels in sediments and fish downstream are still dangerously high. The report also said it was possible to clean up the mercury in the waterways.

Then, the Star published an investigation that found the province had ignored startling information from retired labourer Kas Glowacki, who reported that 40 years ago he was part of a small crew that “haphazardly” dumped drums of mercury and salt into a pit near the pulp and paper plant in Dryden.

Shortly after the Star began asking questions about the potentially dangerous alleged dump, the environment ministry sent an inspector to the area Glowacki identified to take surface water samples.

A government source said the results show traces of mercury significantly below provincial standards but that those tests are not being solely relied on to rule in or out the existence of the alleged dump site.

Ground water samples were taken form 27 wells late last week and results are expected in two to three weeks. Scientists have told the Star that they believe such tests will better show if mercury is present in the area identified by Glowacki.

The sonar test will be able to detect metal objects such as barrels below ground level.

The alleged dump site, as identified by Glowacki, is believed to be on a property now owned by Domtar, a pulp, paper and diaper manufacturer. Domtar was not the owner of the site at the time of the alleged dumping of barrels. A spokesman described the area as a bark waste pile.

The spokesman also told the Star that the company has granted a request from the environment ministry that officials be able to attend the site with representatives from Grassy Narrows, though it hasn’t been decided when that will happen.

After a closed-door meeting with the ministers later in the afternoon, Fobister called the day a “momentous” one for his community. “We see the commitment from the provincial government. They want to look at options as to the best way to clean up the river system,” he said.

Wynne has repeatedly said she has been cautioned by scientists that remediation risked making the problem worse, and she reiterated that concern Monday.

“When I was minister of aboriginal affairs . . . I was told, and have consistently been told that to stir up the mercury that is in the sediment in this water could further contaminate the ecosystem. I am not willing to do more damage.”

Wynne also said upcoming field studies will aim to find any sources of ongoing contamination.

Fobister has requested that the same scientists behind the recent report participate in the upcoming field studies.