Excellent Article from The Brampton Bulletin, FridayAugust 19/05
Residents, businesses to meet on proposed incinerator
By Linda Erskine
The fight to stop the expansion of a scrap metal
recycling plant on Sun Pac Boulevard in Brampton has
just gathered more steam, as two Brampton councilors
joined area residents and businesses in opposing the
creation of a low-level nuclear waste incinerator.
Concerned residents and business owners are urged to
attend an update meeting on August 25.
Wards 9 and 10 councillors John Sprovieri and Garnett
Manning have pledged their support in trying to stop
the incinerator plan, and Councillor Manning's office
has confirmed that he will attend the August 25
meeting.
The meeting will take place at the Chandni Banquet
Hall (125 Chrysler Dr.) at 7 p.m.
Mississauga Metals and Alloys (formerly Dave's Scrap
Metal and Iron) plans to apply for a re-zoning to
allow for a 35,000-sq. ft. expansion and the creation
of a low-level nuclear waste incinerator for wood,
clothing and cardboard products exposed to low levels
radioactivity.
Dora Jeffries of the Coalition for Nuclear Waste-Free
Peel is pleased with the response from the City of
Brampton and for councilors Sprovieri's and Manning's
commitment to the cause. "They are just as concerned
with the expansion as we are," she noted, adding that
area businesses have already sent letters of concern
to Brampton City Hall as far back as September of last
year.
"Acroturn Industries Inc. (155 Sun Pac Drive) sent a
letter to the councilors, to Mayor Fennell and to
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty about this expansion
to voice their concern over the expansion. They were
appalled that Mississauga Metals and Alloys may get a
licence for this, especially considering they find the
company to be a discourteous neighbour," said
Jeffries. According to Jeffries, the letter went onto
say that despite a M-4 zoning (limiting outside
storage), the metal recycling plant continued to store
material, often flammable, in the yard.
Acroturn Industries offers machining services to the
mold, aircraft and aerospace industries.
Another neighbouring business is also concerned about
the potential for an accident and the lack of an
evacuation route for residents and employees should an
accident occur, a concern the company expressed in a
July 4, 2005 letter to city council.
In order to gain approval for the incinerator,
Mississauga Metals must first undergo an environmental
assessment from the Canadian Nuclear Safety
Commission. Company president David Sharpe explained
that the facility will be safeguarded through
state-of-the-art environmental protection measures and
indicated that there will be no long-term storage of
nuclear material at the facility. However, Jeffries is
concerned that the environmental assessment is a
self-guided one, and not conducted by a third party.
"Whether Brampton becomes the centre for nuclear
recycling should not be left up to an individual
company, but should be a decision made by city council
and the Ontario government," said Jeffries. The good
news, she noted, is that the company would still
undergo an assessment by the Ontario government.
There are three radioactive incinerators in Canada
licensed by the CNSC, confirmed Susan Measor,
Environmental Assessment Specialist with the CNSC
Processing Facilities and Technical Support based in
Ottawa.
They are:
the OPG Western Waste Management
Facility,
the Cameco Blind River Refinery and
the
Cameco Port Hope Conversion Facility.
According to Measor, all stack releases are monitored
for conventional (non-radioactive) and radioactive
emissions and are routinely inspected by CNSC
inspectors. Daily monitoring, however, is the
responsibility of the individual facility. Annual test
stacks, completed by a third party are in compliance
with regulations set by the provincial Ministry of the
Environment, confirmed Measor.
For information on the Mississauga Metal and Alloy
proposal, contact David Sharpe at 905-790-0796 or
davidsharpe@mm-a-.com.
To reach the Coalition for a Nuclear Waste-Free Peel,
call 905-451-3569 or visit http://www.nukefreepeel.org. A
copy of the online petition is now available.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission can be reached
at 1-800-668-5284 or ceaainfo@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca.