INDEX PCB Digest - 5/29/02
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1) PUBLIC CONCERN TEMISKAMING - For Immediate Release - May 27, 2002
Stockwell Should Step Aside from EA on Bennett Incinerator

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1) PUBLIC CONCERN TEMISKAMING - For Immediate Release - May 27, 2002
Stockwell Should Step Aside from EA on Bennett Incinerator

New Liskeard - Opponents of the controversial Bennett dioxin/PCB incinerator are calling on Environment Minister Chris
Stockwell to exempt himself from the EA process. The call comes in the wake of news that Kirkland Lake’s Mayor Bill
Enouy, a bullish supporter of the Bennett incinerator, arranged a meeting with the Environment Minister about the project.
Enouy told Kirkland Lake press that his meeting with Stockwell had been called to discuss the Bennett incinerator. Although
Enouy says no promises were made, the meeting was described as “productive.”

Under the terms of the Tories scoped EA process, it is entirely up to Chris Stockwell to decide whether or not the public will
be allowed hearings on the plan to import and burn toxic waste from across North America at the proposed Kirkland Lake
facility. Stockwell is already on record as saying he thinks Kirkland Lake should become a “Mecca” for waste and incineration
projects.

Terry Graves of Public Concern Temiskaming says Stockwell is in no position to represent the public interest on whether or
not public hearings will be held.

“Chris Stockwell is an open booster of Kirkland Lake’s waste import schemes. What kind of trust can northern residents put
in this guy to be impartial when he’s already been out meeting with supporters of the project and telling the media he thinks
Kirkland Lake should be a Mecca for incineration efforts?”

Graves also points out that Stockwell is failing in his duty to uphold national standards set up by Federal and Provincial
Ministers of Environment. Under the CCME (Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment) guidelines, no hazardous
waste incinerators are to be sited within 1.5 kms of residential neighbourhoods. And yet, the Bennett incinerator is scheduled to
burn dioxin-contaminated waste within proximity of two grade schools, a day care centre and over 240 homes. Dioxin has
been described by CEO John Bennett as the most “toxic element known to man.”

“Here we have a plant to import and burn extremely toxic elements like dioxin,” says Graves. “The waste will be burned near
school yards and backyards. No hearings are guaranteed. No independent review is promised. And our own Minister of
Environment is willing to wave national standards established by Environment Ministers from across the country. The only
reason all this American waste is coming here is because Ontario’s standards for incineration are now lower than anywhere
else in North America.”

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