PUBLIC CONCERN TEMISKAMING
 
For Immediate Release                                                                         January 6, 2002
Ontario Government Creating an Environmental “Zone of Sacrifice” --Experts Warn
 
Kirkland Lake –Northern Ontario is being set up as a “zone of sacrifice” as a result of the Ontario government’s lax environmental policies on hazardous waste importation and incineration. That was the warning delivered by Dr. Neil Carman of Austin, Texas at a public forum held in Kirkland Lake on Saturday January 5th. The forum was held to debate the creation of what will be the largest PCB incinerator of its kind in Canada. The incinerator is being built by Bennett Environmental to treat contaminated soils from across North America and, possibly, international contaminants as well.
 
“What we are seeing is the government permitting zones of sacrifice,” stated Dr. Carman, a former incinerator inspector with the State of Texas. “These incinerators are targeted in poor areas and I have seen the sick children and the worried parents who have to deal with the fall-out of these operation.”
 
Bennett had originally come into the region in hopes of using the Adams Mine landfill as a place to dump the treated contaminated soils which will be brought in from across North America. Although the Adams Mine has been defeated by local residents, Bennett is still trying to sell the incinerator as a positive benefit for the community.
 
However, another key note speaker at the forum, Dr. Paul Connett, warned the community not to fall for Bennett’s pitch. Connett, a tenured professor at St. Lawrence University in New York told the crowd that the trade off in “30 dirty jobs” wasn’t worth the health risks to children living near the stack or to the $100 million a year dairy and beef industry situated to the south of the proposed facility.
 
“Thousands of communities across North America will be willing to pay good money to get rid of their toxic liabilities but it’s your community that will have to live with this liability. You will become dump town North America.”
 
Residents in the region are demanding Environment Minister Elizabeth Witmer bring in legislation to protect poor, northern communities from becoming waste grounds for international toxic materials.