INDEX PCB Digest - 2/24/02
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1) Temiskaming Speaker - 2/20/02 - Front Page
Opponents to BEI proposal drumming up support
2) Temiskaming Speaker - 2/20/02 - Page 3
TFA wants to meet with Kirkland Lake council
3) Temiskaming Speaker - 2/20/02 - Letters to the Editor
This land is our land...or is it?
4) Temiskaming Speaker - 2/20/02 - Letters to the Editor
Respect the North
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1) Temiskaming Speaker - 2/20/02 - Front Page
Opponents to BEI proposal drumming up support
by Diane Johnston
Speaker Reporter
THORNLOE Opponents of a proposal to build a hazardous
waste treatment plant in Kirkland Lake are continuing to try to build support.
Northwatch coordinator Brennain Lloyd said a technical
case arguing against provincial approval for the Bennett
Environmental Inc. (BEL) proposal is being built in anticipation of
environmental assessment hearings.
But public sentiment is also crucial, Ms. Lloyd told
about 60 people who attended a meeting sponsored by Public Concern
Temiskaming in Thornloe February 17.
"We need a resounding 'no' coming out of the
Timiskaming District to the PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) proposals
that Bennett is imposing on us," she said.
Support came on the weekend from representatives of
the Union Paysanne, a fledgling Quebec association of some 2,000
members promoting rural well being.
The organization sees no economic benefits in the BEl
proposal, said coordinator Lise Chartrand of Rollet, about 60
kilometres northeast of New Liskeard.
It must also become a national issue, said David
Martineau of nearby Remigny.
"We need to stand together in the name of Mother
Earth and our children," he said.
THE PROJECT
BEl proposes to build a two stage incineration plant
that would treat up to 200,000 tonnes annually of solid waste, such
as soil, dredging materials, construction debris, and packaging.
The material has been contaminated by a variety of
chlorinated and non chlorinated compounds, such as PCBs, wood
preservatives; coal tars and pesticides.
Th.e company maintains its technology is sound, and
points to test burn results from its similar but smaller plant near
Chicoutimi, Quebec.
But some residents living near the St. Ambroise plant
cite reports blaming the plant for contaminants found in the soil.
The company, for its part, questions whether the pollutants have come
from its plant.
One of the offshoots of PCB incineration is the
creation of dioxins, a family of toxic substances that persist in the environment.
Exposure to PCBs and dioxins have been linked in some
reports to adverse effects on hormonal activity, neurobehavioural
development, maturation and reproductive system development.
BEl argues that it is because of the pollutants' risks
that contaminated sites need to be cleaned up.
Dioxin-contaminated waste is part of its market, said
Danny Ponn, BEI's vice president and chief operating officer, earlier
this week.
Dioxins are also found in some of the other material
BEl wants to treat. He said they're created as an inadvertent
byproduct in the manufacturing of some substances such asPCP, a wood preservative.
But the plant could also jeopardize the area's farming
industry, said Charlie Angus of Public Concern Temiskaming.
The group notes that less than 100 mjlligrams of
dioxin contamination in 1999 is blamed for billions of dollars in
losses to the Belgian agricultural industry.
Earlton business owner Pierre Belanger questioned
whether Temiskaming is being targeted by such companies because it's
seen as lacking financial power and political clout and "being
down and out for the count."
He questioned why any company would consider hauling
waste from across the U.S. ti Kirkland Lake if emissions are indeed
99.9999 per cent clean.
“Is there one other community in Canada or the
States that wants this plant?"
He said he's among many who believe that Temiskaming
will continue to be subjected to these types of proposals if Kirkland
Lake "doesn't come to its senses."
To change people's minds, he said people must take
their concerns to friends and neighbours in the Kirkland Lake area.
PRESSURE
Mr. Angus urged people to pressure Temiskaming MP Ben
Serre, MPP David Ramsay and local municipal officials to take a stand.
"Give these people no squirming room," he said.
He said the Timiskaming First Nation, a leading force
in the fight against the Adams Mine landfill proposal, is now
rallying opposition among First Nations in Ontario and northwestern Quebec.
Ms. Lloyd urged that other community leaders be
brought on side.
"These toxins have absolutely defined impacts on
children's ability to learn," she said.
She said that's of concern to teachers and day care workers.
Similarly, their health impacts are of concern to
nurses, doctors and pharmacists, she added.
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2) Temiskaming Speaker - 2/20/02 - Page 3
TFA wants to meet with Kirkland Lake council
by Diane Johnston
Speaker Reporter
THORNLOE - For the first time in his farming career,
John Vanthof said he's questioning the wisdom of making further
investments in Temiskaming.
The Evanturel Township dairy producer is president of
the Temiskaming Federation of Agriculture and a municipal councillor.
He told about 60 people at a February 17 meeting in
Thornloe hosted by Public Concern Temiskaming that he was not worried
when the Bennett Environmental Inc. (BEI) proposal first surfaced.
BEl proposes to build a two stage incineration
treatment plant in Kirkland Lake.
It would treat solid materials such as soil,
construction material, and dredgings contaminated by a variety of
pollutants, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
But Mr. Vanthof said he's become alarmed by the damage
he fears that the project could pose to the public perception of the
safety. of Temiskaming produced food.
He said agriculture, of which dairy production is the
driving force, is a $100 million industry in Temiskaming and the
source of 2,000 jobs.
Temiskaming is the only area in Ontario today where
the number of farms and the size of farms is growing, he said.
But if one of the three companies in Canada buying
milk decides that offering Temiskaming milk is "not conducive to
sales," he said the district's dairy industry could disappear.
He said the Temiskaming Federation of Agriculture is
going to try to meet with Kirkland Lake council.
"You can't keep introducing projects into an area
that are going to threaten half of it," he said.
The federation has submitted its critique on the draft
environmental assessment that BEI is now honing before the release of
the formal environmental assessment.
BEl vice-president and chief operating officer Danny
Ponn anticipated the formal documents will be ready within six to
eight weeks.
Mr. Ponn said BIl is meeting with Ontario Ministry of
the Environment officials this week to discuss a few items that the
ministry would like to see covered in the environmental assessment,
and they could take time to generate.
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3) Temiskaming Speaker - 2/20/02 - Letters to the Editor
This land is our land...or is it?
Dear Editor:
Temiskaming in Northern Ontario is a land of forests,
lakes and rivers, open spaces, clean air and water, and friendly
people leading quiet lives. However, all is not well in Paradise.
In fact, I am hurt, frustrated and absolutely livid.
We have just gone through a great turmoil with the Toronto garbage
issue. The people of Temiskaming spoke loud and clear and said most
emphatically that they did not wish to be dumped upon literally and
figuratively. Was the message not clear enough? I don't know, but
here we go again.
This time, a new "benefactor" in our area is
proposing a solution to the economic woes in Kirkland Lake. Bennett
Environmental - a misnomer if there ever was one - wishes to grace us
with the largest incinerator in North America, which would bum some
of the most deadly chemicals known to man - PCBs and dioxins.
Contaminated earth would be brought from Canada, the United States
and even Mexico. Bennett assures us that the process is absolutely
safe. If this were so, why would the same process be banned in most
states in the U.S.? Even minute quantities of these toxins are
extremely dangerous for they cannot be flushed out once they are
absorbed. They are mainly concentrated in fatty tissues and milk, and
are magnified 25,000,000 times at the top of the food chain. The top
of the food chain is of course various large animals and us.
Economically, the Bennett proposal does not make sense
for it involves only a few jobs for K.L., most of them poorly paid
and hazardous. However, nagging questions remain: why us, why are we
the chosen ones, the recipients of such "largesse':? Why is it
that communities were not at Bennett's doorstep vying for the project
and why indeed would Bennett not locate its facility close to
industrialized centers, thus eliminating some of the cost of trucking
and thereby maximizing profits? The answer is obvious to anyone but
the most simple minded. Even though I may be foolish, I hate to be
taken for an absolute imbecile. The answer to these questions, of
course, is that nobody wants it. NOBODY.
Unfortunately, we live in a sparsely populated and
economically depressed area that has little political clout in
Queen's Park. We also live at a time where Mr. Harris has drastically
gutted the Environmental Act, resulting in the Walkerton tragedy and
in making Ontario in general and us specifically, a tempting solution
for a most pressing social problem - the disposal of all types of
waste. As a region, we are especially vulnerable. We are seen as easy
prey by rapacious entrepreneurs. We offer the path of least
resistance, We are merely a sacrificial zone so to speak.
When will it be understood by the opportunists, the
purveyors of false hope, the new Greeks bearing gifts that we are a
people deeply attached to our cherished land, that we too have
dignity as human beings, and that we wish to bequeath to future
generations this land which we treasure? Bennett and others of your
ilk, we simply don't want you here. Ever and under any circumstances.
Sincerely,
Alex Melaschenko
Haileybury
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4) Temiskaming Speaker - 2/20/02 - Letters to the Editor
Respect the North
Dear Editor:
I have recently learned that the American government,
after 25 years of burning toxic waste, decided in 1994 to limit the
amount of dioxin that an individual is exposed to at 0.0006 pq
TEQ/kg/cl. I am not an engineer, a scientist or chemist and as you
can imagine, this number means very little to me. I do understand
though, that by maintaining this level of exposure, it is virtually
impossible for toxic waste incinerators to operate. Over 200
incinerators in the United States have had to close down in the last
few years. By maintaining dioxin exposure levels such as this, I can
conclude there is a certain amount of care and respect, by the
American government, for its citizens.
In Canada, that same exposure level is 10 pq TEQ/kg/cl.
Again this number means little to me until you realize that this is
1667 times higher than the American limit. If respect for its
citizens diminished with the amount of dioxin poisoning the people
are expected to endure here in Northern Ontario, then I would have to
assume there is little respect for the North by the governments of
Canada. This fact is further reinforced when we see the Ontario
government allowing a company from New Jersey USA, to invest millions
of dollars into the proposed PCB incinerator in Kirkland Lake.
When Bennett Environmental Inc. say their proposed
facility will operate well below MOE exposure levels, it becomes a
hollow and meaningless statement when you know what those Provincial
standards are. Any American firm that threatened to do this to a
community in that country would be shut down by law.
I think that we, citizens of Northern Ontario, deserve
the same respect as our American counterparts. In order to make this
a reality, we must express our concerns about the high dioxin
exposure limits here in Canada. Contact your councillor, mayor, MPP,
MP, or Environment Minister, either provincial or federal, if you are
concerned, as I am.
Thank you.
Larry Gilbert
Marter Township
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