Kincardine councillor insulted by condescending letter from Inverhuron committee chairperson

Kincardine councillor Laura Haight called a letter from the chairperson of the Inverhuron committee “insulting,” with regard to Ontario Power Generation (OPG)'s proposed Deep Geologic Repository (DGR) for low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste at the Bruce Nuclear site in the Municipality of Kincardine.

The letter, written by Marti McFadzean, was presented at the Kincardine council meeting Wednesday night (July 5).

Reading from her letter, McFadzean said she is “quite discouraged that the elected members, my elected officials, of Kincardine have chosen to approve the proposed project while being quite uninformed.

“I am not aware of any open council discussion that has taken place during the tenure of this council (or the previous council) relative to the merits and/or concerns about this project.

“Not one member has read the report from the Joint Review Panel, nor the two response reports from OPG which were sent to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA). At the very least, you have not asked that the documents be read and a report given to the members of council.”

She told council that making an uninformed decision about the DGR project is more than short-sighted. “It is playing with the future of the municipality and the residents who dwell in its boundaries. In this case, it is making an uninformed decision that could impact thousands, indeed millions, of citizens. Words such as dereliction of duty, blind faith, and lack of due diligence, come to mind.

“I am saddened by your lack of informed commitment to this project. I am shocked at your cavalier approach. I am disheartened by your lack of intellectual rigour.”

She then went on to ask if council was aware of the following information:
 

• OPG has indicated that this structure will eventually leak in the Great Lakes, but contends that being a large body of water, will allow for dissolution
• Radionuclides do not dissolve in water but remain intact
• OPG has stated that during the construction stage of the repository, there will be “a potential adverse effect to the health of the members of the indigenous peoples because of potential exposure to acrolein in air” - the acrolein will have a “hazard quotient value in excess of the desired target of 1.0" (EIS OPG 2011b); this will certainly be true of residents closer to the site; acrolein is a chemical found in cigarettes and has been linked to lung cancer
• OPG cites closed and contaminated facilities, such as Asse 2 and Morsleben in Germany, as “operating” DGRs because there is waste still contained inside
• There is not a container made that can remain intact for 100,000 years
• The Ivey School of Business did a study for the Municipality of Kincardine that shows that the value of the town (business and growth) would diminish drastically if the repository were to move ahead
• Other than transient construction jobs, the DGR will only require about 40 skilled permanent jobs
• International best practices indicate that a DGR is not required for low-level waste (which is 80-90 per cent of the waste to be buried
• Low-level waste needs to be shielded for approximately 60 years before it becomes landfill
• The normal procedure for doing a survey, such as the one done by the municipality in 2004-05, requires that employees of the industry, discussed in the survey, declare themselves to make the survey valid
• The Edison company in California agreed to move a proposed waste burial site away from the water/ocean at the request of environmental groups
• There have been 232 resolutions passed by cities, towns and countries to oppose this project

“It is never too late to do the job for which you were elected, regardless of your conclusions,” said McFadzean. “In spite of the money (being poured into the coffers of the municipality by OPG), council is required to do due diligence.”

“Marti (McFadzean) and I have agreed to disagree on some of this,” said mayor Anne Eadie. “Council members have been well-informed over four different councils. From 2004-10, I was a member of the South Bruce Impact Advisory Committee and we received frequent updates. There were five municipalities involved in this committee and we held public meetings to receive information and ask questions. And since 2010, we have been receiving updates on the DGR process.”

She said the Joint Review Panel (JRP) hearings were held in Kincardine and were well-attended.

“The JRP was very qualified and the information was peer-reviewed. The CEAA requested more information and now has stated it has everything it needs. International experts have studied the project. We believe in the science.

“We all love this municipality and we love the lake, so we have to ensure it is protected.”

Haight told McFadzean that she found her letter insulting.

“You make this blanket statement that none of us has read the report and that we're all uninformed,” she said. “Council didn't approve this project. We approved the process for this project. We are not the experts. We had experts study the project. I'm confident that the process has been followed.

“We can't say whether this project will be approved. We are not the decision-makers. As for the 232 resolutions from other municipalities, I don't believe they are as well informed as the people sitting here at this council table.”

McFadzean said her statements were based on the public meeting she attended where council stated it had received the JRP report and had barely made it through chapter one.

“But you're giving this impression that none of council read any of the information,” replied Haight.

“Have you?” asked McFadzean.

“Is that your position?” argued Haight. “Then you're wrong. I believe the process is being followed.”

“There are many different ways to review the information,” said Eadie, “through videos and links to follow on-line. People read at their own time, and we take in as much information as we can.”

In a recent presentation to Kincardine and Huron-Kinloss councils and Bruce County council, OPG has stated that a decision by the federal environment minister, on whether to approve the DGR project, should be made by the end of this year. If approval is granted, it will still be a decade before any shovels are in the ground.