INDEX PCB Digest
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1) Press Release - 1/26/02
Citizen's Delegation Defies Legal Gag Order to Denounce PCB Contamination
 
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1) Press Release - 1/26/02
For Immediate Release  January 26, 2002
Citizen's Delegation Defies Legal Gag Order to Denounce PCB Contamination
 
Kirkland Lake -- A legal gag order did not deter a delegation from the PCB-contaminated community of St. Ambroise, Quebec from speaking out in Northern Ontario this weekend. The four person delegation came to Temiskaming to warn citizens of Bennett Environmental's plans to build a massive new PCB incinerator in Kirkland Lake. Waving a legal injunction placed on her group to prevent it from speaking out against Bennett, spokesperson Elise Gauthier said the group could not remain silent while Bennett moved ahead in Ontario.
 
“We came to save you from having to fight as much as we've had to fight.” Gauthier told the crowd of 130. “We've come to save you from having to spend your own money and to save you from personal threats and public threats. We came to save you and your children from the short, medium and long term effects on your health.”
 
Bennett Environmental has claimed that its hazardous waste technology is state of the art and 99.9999% clean. The delegation, however, released Regional Health Unit documents showing that after only 300 days of operation, persistent contamination has been found around the site.
 
As well, the delegation released baseline tests conducted in 1997 by the Quebec Ministry of Environment that show that the site in question had been devoid of PCB and dioxin contamination prior to the building of the Bennett incinerator.
 
In addition, the delegation provided a sobering perspective on the economic “benefits” offered by the company -- low paying, part-time jobs and poor working conditions. At the Quebec company, 99% of the waste is from the United States and the trucking jobs belong to Americans.
 
Barbara Bukowski, a spokesperson for Temiskaming residents, says the Quebec delegation has given Northern Ontario residents a wake up call. She is demanding Ontario's Ministry of Environment throw out the Bennett application.
 
“How can the Ministry of Environment try and walk around this?” asks Bukowski. “We have a study that shows the site was clean before Bennett came. We have a study that shows that it took only 300 days for contamination to appear. I don't see how the MOE can do anything but toss this proposal out.”
 
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