INDEX PCB Digest - 7/17/02
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1) Public Concern Temiskaming - For Immediate Release - July 17, 2002
Northern Wheat Sales Threatened by PCB Burning Plans
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1) Public Concern Temiskaming - For Immediate Release - July 17, 2002
Northern Wheat Sales Threatened by PCB Burning Plans
New Liskeard-- First it was dairy, now its wheat. Beleaguered Temiskaming farmers have been told by two prominent flour mills that crops from this northern bread basket could be banned if the controversial Bennett incinerator is approved by Ontario�s Ministry of Environment.
Both Halton Flour Mill and Dover Flour have put area farmers on notice over Bennett Environmental�s plan to build the largest toxic incinerator of its kind in the country. Bennett is looking to set up an incinerator to import and burn dioxin-contaminated waste from NAFTA countries. Last month milk giant Parmalat rocked the region with the news that it would suspend milk purchases if the incinerator were approved.
The letter from Halton manager Paul Cotter is clear: �Halton Flour Milling Inc. has been informed of a PCB incinerator project being established in the Kirkland Lake area...as a company that prides itself on supplying a safe and quality product to its customers, we would be forced to discontinue sourcing wheat from this area.�
The letter from Dover Flour is similar: �...we will not be accepting grain from your area. The logic is simple. It is not just that this �could� be harmful...it is the perception of unknown or future effects of consumption of foods milled from fields, grown near a PCB incineration site.�
Barb Bukowski, a spokesperson for Public Concern Temiskaming, says the threat to agriculture has fueled the increasingly militant opposition to the incinerator.
�This is the largest agricultural district in the north. Our region is totally dependent on farming. People will go to the wall to stop this project.�
The Bennett proposal is being reviewed under the Tories� narrowly scoped EA process. No hearings are scheduled into the plan and no independent review of the company�s studies will be conducted. Bukowski says this means that a $100 million a year agricultural industry is now in the hands of the increasingly discredited Ministry of Environment.
�Is Premier Eves going to be remembered as the man who killed Ontario s only growing agricultural region for the sake of U.S. toxic waste imports? Nobody in this province is going to trust Ontario�s rubber stamp EA process. This Ministry of Environment has lost the trust of the people of this province.�
As residents organize a door-to-door campaign against the MOE, Temiskaming farmers are raising money to take the issue to court if the Eves government attempts to push the incinerator project ahead.
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P. O. Box 2320
New Liskeard, ON P0J 1P0
705-647-1533
[email protected]
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PCB Digest
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PCB Information
http://www21.brinkster.com/nopcb/