PHCHCC - Residents not convinced

Despite expert advice assuring council and members of the public that the move of low-level radioactive waste will be a safe one, some residents are still not convinced. Residents present at the March 15 council meeting were not sure whether enough research has been conducted, even after the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Office public meetings and workshops.

For the past three years the LLRWMO has been working with a team of experts and the community to determine the potential impacts of the cleanup and waste consolidation in Port Hope. The results, contained in a large document entitled Environmental Assessment Study Report, were the subject of scrutiny by the peer review team under the direction of Mark Stevenson.

The peer review team told council the proposal to store all historic radioactive waste in Port Hope near Highway 401 and Baulch Road could be done in a manner that would have little impact on the community’s health or the environment.

“There have been other remediations in the past in other countries,” said Mr. Stevenson. “It can be done and it can be done better here.”Despite the two groups of experts assuring the municipality the project is a safe one, residents such as Curtis Brysbois were not convinced the move of waste would be a safe one. His main concern is dust emissions and exposure levels. In particular, Mr. Brysbois wanted to know how dust could possibly be controlled on a windy day. He was told by Dr. Murray Finkelstein, an expert with the peer review team, if winds were too strong, the project would be stopped for the day, or however long it took for winds to settle down. It was also explained to Mr. Brysbois and others in attendance there was a whole long list of mitigation measures to deal with dust control, such as spraying. Another expert with the team said Mother Nature also has a way of protecting humans from substances in the air, which he pointed out those emitted from the cleanup will be within air quality standards set by the province of Ontario.

“These levels, even for small children, are expected to be not harmful,” he said.

Still, Dan Rudka, who said he suffers from rare lung complications, was not convinced.

“(My doctors) told me when your shovels hit the ground not to come to Port Hope,” he said.

Although he is not a Port Hope resident he said he feels sorry for residents who do live in the municipality and suffer from respiratory problems. He suggested the waste should just stay where it is, in some cases.

A woman in the audience, Mary Birkett, wondered, since it’s been stated there’s little to no risk with the cleanup, why the waste wasn’t just moved to a new location without public consultation and a taxpayer expense of $260 million for studies.

Mr. Stevenson explained, “We’re trying to be vigilant.” He also noted much of the federal government money is being spent on actual remediation work and site construction.

Other residents, including Pat McNamara and long-time environmental activist Pat Lawson, also had concerns. Concerns about transportation routes, whether or not trucks carrying LLRW would be identified, and how much space in the waste management site has been allocated to material from Cameco’s decommissioning were also raised.

Mr. McNamara said he felt the public had no real voice in the Environmental Assessment.

“We want a voice that has some power behind it, and we don’t have that,” he said. “All we have is a fox that’s looking after the chicken.” It was pointed out to Mr. McNamara and other concerned citizens there will still be plenty of time for them to comment on the project.

“We’re only discussing the preferred option,” explained Mayor Rick Austin. “There’s still a lot of work that has to be done.

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