INDEX PCB Digest - 6/4/02
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1) Public Concern Temiskaming - MEDIA ADVISORY - 6/4/02
Release of Accident Reports Raises Questions About
Bennett Incinerator
2) Northern Ontario Business (monthly newspaper) - 6/02
Toxic Wars
Kirkland Lake is determined to carve out its own
niche, despite backlash over a proposed incinerator project.
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1) Public Concern Temiskaming - MEDIA ADVISORY - 6/4/02
Release of Accident Reports Raises Questions About
Bennett Incinerator
Opponents of the proposed Bennett incinerator are
accusing the Tories’ streamlined EA process of compromising
public health.
Bennett Environmental is currently undergoing a
streamlined EA for what will be the largest hazardous waste
incinerator of its kind in Canada. The incinerator is scheduled to be
built near two grade schools and a day care in a residential
neighbourhood in Kirkland Lake despite the fact that the plan
contravenes national CCME guidelines.
At a press conference being held on Wednesday morning,
Public Concern Temiskaming will release accident reports from
Bennett’s existing incinerator in Quebec. The documents detail
safety problems and upsets at the Quebec incinerator. The release of
these documents raise serious doubts about the reliability of
Ontario’s streamlined EA process which is dependent on the
claims of company-paid consultants.
The reports are being released as a number of northern
municipalities openly express doubt about Ontario’s EA process.
NDP Environment Critic Marilyn Churley will speak on
the need to press the MOE for accountability in protecting the safety
of Ontario citizens.
Press Conference at Queen’s Park
Media Studio
Legislative Building
Time: 11:00 AM
Wednesday, June 5, 2002
Marilyn Churley (NDP Environment Critic)
Terry Graves (Public Concern Temiskaming)
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2) Northern Ontario Business newspaper - 6/02
Toxic Wars
Kirkland Lake is determined to carve out its own
niche, despite backlash over a proposed incinerator project.
By Ian Ross
KIRKLAND LAKE — The empty storefronts and
“Going out of business” sale signs on the twisting downtown
streets of this mining town of 14,000 reflect the dilemma many
one-industry communities find themselves in.
Reliant for generations on the natural resources
industry’s cyclical nature for its livelihood, the town with the
“mile of gold” is a shadow of its former self.
The spring reopening of the Macassa Mine by Foxpoint
Resources is a feel-good boost to the town’s morale, but many
locals realize it will never match the glory days of the 1950s and
‘60s when more than a half-dozen mines operated along Kirkland
Lake’s main drag.
Today’s grim reality shows Kirkland Lake
experiencing the country’s fourth-highest population drop among
municipalities of more than 5,000 according to Census Canada, with a
12.4 per cent decline since 1996.
Rather than be enslaved a boom-and-bust economy,
determined local leaders are carving out their own niche by promoting
the town as a centre for environmental industry solutions.
However, the town’s diversification strategy has
raised the hackles of environmental activists in the Timiskaming
district who battled Temagami logging, the Adams Mine landfill and
now the town’s proposed hazardous waste incinerator by Bennett
Environmental Inc.
The “No Toronto garbage” signs on hay wagons
and front lawns have been replaced by “No toxic waste”
billboards on rock cuts and farm fields along Highway 11.
“Kirkland Lake views the environmental sector as
a huge growth industry globally,” says Todd Morgan, a town
councillor who heads the municipality’s economic development
committee and serves on Bennett’s citizens’ liaison committee.
“We realized during the Adams Mine process, the
populace here has an open mind and that has helped us go down this
road,” says Morgan, which grants them an “edge” over
other northern communities stuck in a “NIMBY-ism mindset.”
Bennett Environmental owns and operates a two-stage
incineration facility in St. Ambroise, Que. that cleans contaminated
soil at extremely high temperatures, about 1000 Degrees C. Using the
same thermal oxidizer system planned for Kirkland Lake, Bennett is
seeking an operating licence and is in the midst of a three-year
environmental assessment by the Ministry of the Environment (MOE).
The 110,000-square-foot plant earmarked for a 45-acre
lot in Kirkland Lake’s environmental industrial park on Archer
Drive would create 35 jobs and process 200,000 tonnes of contaminated
soil waste annually.
If their permitting application is successful, the
plant could open as early as late 2003.
But in promoting their vision of environmental
solutions, Kirkland Lake has set itself up as a lightning rod for
environmental activists.
“So be it,” says Morgan. “I mean who
are the true environmentalists? Who’s out there trying to clean
up the world?
“We live here. We’re not going to dirty our
backyard. It’s ridiculous.”
Opponents answer not only are they dirtying their own
backyard but everyone else’s for hundreds of kilometres around
if leaks from the plant release PCBs, dioxins and furans into the air
and water.
They fear the burning of contaminated waste and the
residue produced is much worse than the waste itself.
It is a desperate attempt by Kirkland Lake to create a
paltry number of jobs and rake in big bucks at any cost, explains
Terry Graves of Public Concern Timiskaming,
“This is what Northern Ontario has become; a
place to get rid of your crap.”
Having little faith in the MOE’s
“Harris-ized” environmental review process, Graves believes
Ontario’s watered-down regulations only serve to foster new
business opportunities in economically depressed areas.
“Toxic waste gravitates to the constituency with
the lowest standards, so welcome to Northern Ontario.”
Aligned with him are First Nations leaders and farmers
in the Timiskaming district, Tri-Town area businesses and a group of
34 area doctors who released a petition the accidental release of
toxins from the proposed Bennett plant could be harmful to fetuses,
babies and children in homes and schools within a 1.5-kilometre
radius of the plant site.
Though Graves calls the burning of contaminants an
“18th-century technology,” Kirkland Lake town officials
refer to the process as a safe alternative to contaminated soil
ending up in a landfill somewhere.
Morgan insists “there’s no free ride”
for environmental companies eyeing Kirkland Lake.
“As long as these companies pass the
environmental process, we’re very comfortable with them.”
The town has already been successful in attracting
Trans-Cycle Industries, an American company specializing in recycling
contaminated soils, sludge and debris.
Bennett’s plan is to truck soil, gravel, rock,
old building site material from contaminated sites across Canada and
the U.S.
But only PCB-contaminated waste from Canada is being
accepted, says Danny Ponn, Bennett’s chief operating officer. He
forecasts huge company growth with the legislative movement toward
cleaning up the estimated 3 to 5 million tonnes of contaminated soil
just in Ontario brownfield sites alone.
“If we need to clean up in 20 years, the Kirkland
Lake facility is not enough.”
Though Ponn admits there have been documented
air-emission leaks caused by power outages at its St. Ambroise plant,
Bennett vows to do better, spending $3 million on consultants and
embracing public input to build in every possible precaution for
Kirkland Lake.
“Everything has a risk. We are a heavy industrial
facility,” but the “incremental risks” should be
negligible for those living near the plant.
“If a family of four lived at the maximum point
of emission for 70 years, ate food from their backyard garden, drank
local water and ate area fish, the risk is less than one in one
million of contracting cancer and other health impacts,” which
falls within the MOE’s risk assessment guidelines, says Ponn.
Despite the stigma in attracting these industries,
“people are calling us,” says Morley Bowes, the town’s
chief administrative officer, adding that the town is engaged in
talks ranging from “exploratory” to “serious”
with at least 10 other environmental companies attracted to its the
town’s spacious and cheap industrial property and its
sewer-water-power system designed for 20,000 people.
“Kirkland Lake just has its own self-serving
agenda and they’ve shown they don’t give a damn about
anybody outside of their own business community,” says Graves.
His group will continue compiling a dossier on Bennett
and their practices, crashing the company shareholder meetings and
inviting scientific and ex-industry experts to public rallies in
communities along the Highway 11 corridor.
Though not willing to divulge the specifics of the
next stage of their campaign, Graves, a litigation manager at a New
Liskeard law firm, says their intent is simply to educate and raise
awareness of the risks associated with incineration.
Graves says the past decade’s controversies have
split families, ruined friendships and occasionally veered into
threats of violence. Morgan rolls his eyes and accuses
Graves’ group of “driving a wedge” between communities.
Gauging the level of support and size of the
opposition on each side of the fence depends upon who one talks to.
Even the last municipal election in Kirkland Lake, fought
referendum-style, resulting in a clear-cut victory for the pro-Adams
Mine and pro-Bennett supporters, is open to interpretation as to what
candidate supported what issues.
But there is no doubt the polarized attitudes are set
in concrete. In sampling some street opinions on a downtown Kirkland
Lake street, a half-dozen citizens waved off interview requests.
One small businessman expressed satisfaction with the
answers provided by Bennett officials during a series of public
information meetings. Though not overjoyed with the unwanted
attention the town has received, the benefits for the community
“far outweigh” any negatives, he says.
“We’re looking forward to Bennett coming in,
we can sure use the employment.
“As far as the controversy is concerned, it seems
to come from a small group of people who oppose anything that comes
this way.
He declined to give his name though.
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