Summary Points of Kirkland Lake Waste Incineration Forum

Held Saturday, January 5th, 2002

An open public meeting was held at the KL Northern College Auditorium to discuss threats posed by a proposed toxic waste incinerator locate on the edge of Caput Hughes. The Temiskaming Federation of Agriculture sponsored the event. There were four speakers. Dr. Neil Carman, a former EPA (US) incinerator license monitor; Dr. Paul Connett, a chemical professor and incinerator expert from New York State, represented the interests of Public Concern Temiskaming. Bennett's representatives were Danny Ponn, COF, and Dr. Williams Mills, a private consultant.  The session ran from 10:30 am until 5:00 pm.

Observations from the session are the following:

·       Ontario Standards for incinerator emissions and the process of approval are out of date and do not protect public health.  Alternative, safer on site treatment technologies exist. (Ecologic)

·       Toxins emitted from stacks are extremely dangerous as they attack the reproductive system and children first. (Birth defects, learning disabilities, cancers and sterility)

·       An incinerator bypass vent (Bennett calls it a "thermal relief vent") that releases an estimated 1,000 times or more of the allowable levels is not continuously monitored, stack tested, not counted during Trial Burns, regulated, nor are these toxic releases included in the EA. review and annual emissions estimate for the incinerator. Bypass vent emissions are extremely dangerous to public health and the environment. No regulatory limit exists in the numbers of upsets, breakdowns, and other malfunctions or  volume of toxic air pollution the incinerator can emit.

·       No full Environmental Assessment is being done, as a result of the review process which has having been narrowly scoped by Bennett and the Ministry of the Environment. There is no commitment to a public hearing, and no funds available to support an independent technical review.

·       Studies were not done on background level of dioxin. We could already be beyond a safe level of exposure to dioxin with additional exposure causing health impacts immediately.

·       There is limited legal recourse for citizens suffering from health and real estate losses as a result of exposure from toxic gases released.

·       Lead, mercury, cadmium, furans and dioxins will be released from the stack both routinely and through operational emergencies.

·       Incineration takes a company environmental liability and converts it into a community health and environmental liability.

·       An incinerator would not encourage business in KL as health impacts from contamination discourage investment and drive people out of the community.

·       PCBs and dioxin biomagnify  up to 25 million times in animals and birds extending the  contamination zone 50 to 100 kilometers from the source.

·       Incineration threatens the $100M farming business and hunting in the region as animals collect toxins and deliver them to humans in the milk and meat.

·       Bennett would not agree to cancel the project even if the majority of the community opposed it.

·       The MOE bureaucratic process alone will not stop the project, only public involvement and pressure on politicians will stop the project. Governments don't protect public health unless driven to by citizens.