9 February 2010

Not Quite an Environmental Armageddon On Its Way

Kamloops British Columbia - It is understandable opposition will arise when a company such as the Aboriginal Cogeneration Corporation proposes to use gasification technology in Kamloops to rid the world of creosote-treated railway ties.
 
Creosote and incineration, even when done in a manner the experts have deemed as safe, are bound to spook some people.
 
Objecting to the ACC proposal is democracy in action and, in a way, it is encouraging to see so many people tuned into their community.
 
However, the nasty byproduct of such activism is the blatant disinformation being peddled in the effort to stop the Winnipeg-based company from starting the gasification process on its Mission Flats Road property.
 
Since the Ministry of Environment issued a permit for the plant to operate, we have been subjected to mass hysteria, with ludicrous claims of a pending environmental Armageddon giving new meaning to hyperbole and exaggeration. This has been delivered via letters and phone calls, via faxes from opposition groups, and through a Facebook group attempting to gather signatures for an online petition.
 
Here are some claims echoing through the Thompson Valley that smell far worse than anything that might be expelled from the ACC gasification facility:
 
* Other communities have rejected ACC's plans, so why should Kamloops be saddled with the venture?
 
The only other community remotely involved, as far as I know, was Ashcroft, and Mayor Andy Anderson told me the issue never reached council level as the private landowner and the ACC could not reach an agreement for lease of land in 2007.
 
* The Ministry of Environment (MOE) has ensured there will be no toxins or emissions escaping from the plant based on no hard scientific data.
 
Nowhere in permit 103943 does the MOE claim "there will be no toxins or emissions escaping."
 
Of course there will be emissions, but they will be miniscule, equal annual to a single wood-burning stove, and monitored with extreme scrutiny. The list of compounds being sampled is comprehensive and unprecedented in Kamloops.
 
Add to that a web-based camera to allow MOE officials to view visible haze and monthly reports and it is difficult to understand how ministry officials can be criticized.
 
* Kamloops should have a say in what goes on in our city, not a company from Manitoba, and not a government that doesn't live here.
 
Actually, Kamloops does have a say in zoning regulations and the property on Mission Flats Road is properly zoned. And the ministry staff approving this project do live right here in Kamloops. Would the MOE's Jason Bourgeois sign off on a project if he felt its operation would endanger the lives of his family? Would anyone?
 
* There is no other facility like this anywhere in the world.
 
Not quite true. There are plenty of similar gasification projects throughout the world. The proposed facility in Kamloops would feature the most modern technology to date.
 
Then there are various tenuous links being used in the battle.
 
The Facebook site criticizes Environment Minister Barry Penner for an alleged double-standard as Penner opposed the proposed Sumas Energy 2 power plant about a decade ago.
 
That was a 660-megawatt power plant that would have supplied power to a half-million homes. The Kamloops proposal is a two-megawatt biomass facility. The comparison is ludicrous.
 
There is the attempt to compare the ACC proposal to an environmental nightmare in Louisiana.
 
The Bayou Bonfouca site manufactured creosote and stored untold thousands of gallons of the stuff for nearly a century.
 
Again, the comparison is ludicrous.
 
There are those who lament Kamloops' reputation will suffer because of the facility, an ironic sentiment considering the protests are precisely what has informed outsiders of the project.
 
I trust the MOE data. I trust the monitoring plan. I trust this proposal is superior than letting railway ties pile up from coast to coast, with the possibility of creosote leaching here and there and everywhere.
 
Others will disagree, even after digesting the same research.
 
But, can we dispense with the hysterical misinformation and scare tactics and focus on the facts at hand?
 
Christopher Foulds.