Residents near power plant invited to workshops
Point Aconi
Cape Breton Post
Saturday, June 21, 2003
Governments are seeking input
from 2,000 residents living near
a power plant capable of burning
toxic sludge from Canada's
worst toxic waste site.
Parker Donham, spokesperson
for the provincial Sydney
Tar Ponds Agency, said letters
were delivered Friday to five
communities bordering the
Point Aconi Power Plant. The
correspondence was to notify
residents of a series of workshops
to begin Monday.
The effort is the result of
fears raised by residents neighbouring
the plant's twin-fluidized bed
incinerator - the
closest off-site incinerator
capable of co-burning toxic
sludge from the Sydney tar ponds
and coke ovens sites. The
possibility that the toxic sludge
will be burned in their back
yards was realized when the
Joint Action Group made a recommendation
to governments in May.
That recommendation was
to co-burn the waste at a power
plant or cement kiln and was
the result of 1,700 responses
gathered at workshops attended
mostly by residents neighbouring
the toxic site and not
the power plant.
A workshop aimed at gathering
input from Point Aconi
residents was held before the
recommendation was made but
the session was poorly attended.
Donham said government,
"won't reopen the recommendation
process or roll it into the
other stats. It will just be another
piece of information government
will use when deciding what
form of cleanup will
be done."
Donham said the sessions
will provide information on the
10 technologies proposed to
clean up the tar ponds and coke
ovens.
He did caution that "to have
an informed opinion, you have
to be prepared to listen to what
the experts have told us about
the options.
"We're not too impressed
with people who come into a
meeting and start yelling and
screaming. But we're certainly
interested in hearing people
who want to listen to the work
that's been done, learn about
the work that's been done, and
ask the questions that they
have. At the end of the day,
reasonable people can come to
reasonable conclusions."
Monday's session will be
held at the Point Aconi Hall.
A second session will be held
Tuesday at the Alder Point
Community Centre; followed
by a session Wednesday, July 2
at Bras d'Or Hall, and a session
Thursday July 3 at the Millville
Community Centre. The meetings
will end at the Big Bras d'Or
Fire Hall, Friday July 4.
All sessions will begin at
6:30 p.m. and end around 9 p.m.
tcmacdonald@cbpost.com
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