Woo Hoo! Can It Be That Easy?
I just received word that the incinerator proposal is dead!
It's not official yet, but here is the letter and Province article I received from Helen Spiegleman this morning! Please do follow through on her suggestion to send an email to the Province (provletters@png.canwest.com) reiterating how glad we are to hear the news!
And we must still do the work to meet with our representatives and let them know about our concerns with regard to waste management and whatever Plan B will be installed.
Anne
Hello everyone,
The Province newspaper is reporting that Metro's incinerator proposal is dead. Even before we have met with a single politician!
This is sometimes the way things happen. All the arguments that we have been raising against the incinerators, for years and years, suddenly broke through the log jam.
It would be a really good idea to send letters to the Province ( provletters@png.canwest.com ) saying how glad we are that the incinerator plan is being shelved -- and how important it will be to not just sit back and do nothing, but instead come up with a really good plan that will reduce our waste.
Also, until the politicians actually declare the project "buried" we still need to do our work meeting with them. They are going to need a "Plan B" alternative -- and a vigilant public to make sure they don't get tempted by incinerators again!
Helen.
Landfill extension buries incinerator proposal
Brian Lewis
The Province
January 19, 2010
Is Metro Vancou-ver's relentless pursuit of waste-to-energy incinerators
within its regional district, as a solution to its waste-disposal dilemma,
burning itself out?
It's beginning to look that way, even though a few diehards within Metro's
bureaucracy are sticking to this garbage-burning option with fanatic-like
fervour.
Regardless, they were dealt a significant setback last week when the B.C.
government announced approval of a proposed Cache Creek Landfill Extension
Project.
This $100-million initiative adds a 42-hectare extension to the existing
Cache Creek Landfill in the B.C. Interior, which has been taking roughly
one-third of Metro Vancouver's garbage since 1989.
The existing site is almost at capacity, hence the scramble by Metro to
find an alternative disposal solution.
That's how its proposal to utilize modern wasteto-energy technologies
originated. These systems incinerate or gasify various waste forms to
produce electricity or steam, or both, for use in homes, businesses or
industries.
However, proponents and opponents differ significantly on the impacts.
Proponents -- especially the companies that build these technologies and
willingly feed the data to Metro in hopes of making multimillion-dollar
sales -- maintain there are little or no harmful emissions of any kind.
But opponents hold the opposite view and point out that these high-cost
power plants also produce piles of toxic ash which, of course, must be put
in a landfill.
The Fraser Valley Regional District and many who live in this tightly
confined air-shed, where most of our local food is grown, are on the
receiving end of Metro's prevailing westerlies and the big-city pollutants
that drift into their backyards.
Naturally, they don't want additional nasty gasses or particulates so they
were delighted about the Cache Creek extension because it adds 17 to 25
years to that landfill's lifespan.
More to the point, it torches Metro's raison d'etre for garbage incinerators.
Most stakeholders understand that B.C.'s Environment Ministry has worked
extra hard to extend Cache Creek's life because it doesn't want to see
waste-to-energy plants in the Metro area.
That's not to say dumping Metro's garbage at the Cache Creek landfill is
the ideal solution. It's not.
But many feel it's the lesser of two evils.
Nor is it a coincidence that Environment Minister Barry Penner's riding is
Chilliwack-Hope and that several other key B.C. government ministers are
from Fraser Valley ridings.
But the worst aspect of waste-to-energy, aside from it being a high-cost
way to produce electricity, is that it locks a region into continually
supplying its garbage as a feedstock for power production rather than
recycling all those plastics and other fossil-fuel-based pro ducts that
would cut our oil consumption.
As B.C. Recycling Council spokeswoman Mairi Welman told me yesterday, some
waste-to-energy plants in Europe are now having to import garbage to keep
their power plants operating.
Finally, not only does the B.C. government have to sign off on a new Metro
plan that proposes waste-to-energy technology or otherwise, but both the
energy and environment ministries must approve a specific technology as
"clean and renewable energy" before B.C. Hydro could purchase the
electricity.
And there's no guarantee that will happen, says Hydro.
http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/news/editorial/story.html......
