The hearing is the first webcast from Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

Sydney, N.S., residents can watch a court hearing related to the tar ponds on the web starting Monday — the first webcast for Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

Hundreds of plaintiffs from Sydney are seeking certification for a class-action lawsuit against the provincial and federal governments.

They claim the governments knew about the health and environmental risks linked to the contaminated sludge in the tar ponds, and failed to do anything about it.

"It is about the contamination of an entire community," lawyer Ray Wagner said in court Monday. "It is about the dumping of dangerous and hazardous chemicals on the community, which we allege, that both defendants knew contained harmful substances."

The tar ponds, called one of Canada's worst toxic waste sites, is what's left from a century of steelmaking.

Pollutants leaked out of a coke oven, the chamber where coal was heated, and about 700,000 tonnes of chemical waste and raw sewage accumulated over the decades.

Wagner has been preparing for this day for 6½ years. He said he represents hundreds of people in Sydney who live or lived within a five-kilometre radius of Whitney Pier's Victoria Road.

"The primary part of this case is about property remediation," Wagner told reporters. "People in the city of Sydney are not looking for a big payout, or whatever. All they want is to restore their community to health for their children and their grandchildren."

Justice John Murphy will decide whether there are enough people with enough common cause to launch a class-action lawsuit against the provincial and federal governments.

Nine days have been set aside to hear arguments. A decision is likely months away.

The court decided to webcast the proceedings because of the large number of plaintiffs.

"It just made it convenient for the plaintiffs to be able to watch the proceedings on the internet instead of having to make the trip down to Halifax to sit in on the courtroom itself," said John Piccolo, spokesman for the courts in Nova Scotia.

If the claim proceeds as a class-action lawsuit, Wagner said there will be a lot of work ahead.