Northern Daily News
Saturday, January 12, 2002
 
More testing sought
 
JOE O'GRADY
Northern Daily News.
Haileybury :
 
Haileybury is maintaining its "qualified support" for a proposed contaminated waste incinerator in Kirkland Lake but wants a number of environmental concerns addressed before the project is approved.
 
In a letter to Bennett Environmental Inc., Haileybury Mayor Tom Wells said his municipality is concerned about the potential im pact on its drinking water.
 
"The most pressing of our concerns is the absence in your environ mental assessment of details on the potential impact on Lake Temiskaming, the source of Haileybury's drinking water," Mayor Wells said in the letter.
 
"Emissions from the proposed facility will impact Murdock Creek. This creek flows into the Blanche River which in turn flows into Lake Temiskaming. We had hoped that a consideration of this would have been a significant part of your environmental assessment.
 
"We are fearful of an increase in the loading of toxic compounds in Lake Temiskaming."
 
Haileybury has asked the company to "be mindful of these concerns" as it continues to conduct environmental studies.
 
Haileybury also expressed concerns about Bennett's air quality study, which was conducted during a two-week period in the fall.
 
"A significantly different data and possibly higher levels of pollutants would have result ed in each of the three other seasons," Wells said.
 
"Also, the cumulative effect of airborne pollutants from all sources is vital to a full environmental assessment. To achieve this, one would expect data collection from all major incinerators in the area. This was not done."
 
Wells also said the Bennett study "seems incomplete" from an agricultural perspective. "It did not credibly demonstrate that there would be no negative impact on farmers," he said." Animal tissue tests and soil concentration tests were not done, only air quality modeling was done.
 
"We feel that biological baseline data collection must be included so that the impact of the thermal oxidizer facility will be known."
 
In a further letter to the Ministry of Environment, the town expressed concern about Bennett's draft environmental assessment documents included in their application for a certificate of approval for the facility.
 
"The town of Haileybury, in the spirit of co-operation, has expressed its qualified support of the Kirkland Lake initiative," Wells said. "It is our hope to continue supporting this initiative, however, we have concerns."
 
Haileybury further asks that the project be "independently reviewed in an Environmental Assessment Hearing forum."