Sydney cleanup could be showcase
Letter to the editor from Colin Isaacs
Cape Breton Post
Mon., Sept. 18, 2004
It appears that the Sydney Tar Ponds Agency is more interested in
battling the Sierra Club than in sharing sound scientific
information with the readers of the Cape Breton Post.
(Sierra Club, Tar Ponds Agency still at odds over cleanup,
September 10). Sierra Club is
quite correct when it says that contaminated site clean-up
technologies have advanced a great deal in the last 20 years. Many new
technologies, including the gas phase chemical reduction technology
which Sierra Club has mentioned, have been given operating permits in
Canada and in other countries. To describe them as "experimental" is a
distortion of the facts.
It would be most unfortunate if the Tar Ponds Agency is allowed to
proceed with a clean-up using anything other than the very best
available technology. Not only do the people of Sydney deserve the
best possible permanent cleanup, but the best possible cleanup will
also increase Canada's recognition for environmental expertise in the
international community. This will help increase sale of excellent
Canadian environmental technology and services around the world. A
substandard cleanup will seriously damage Canada's international
environmental reputation.
If the project is properly planned, best available need not
mean most expensive and should not involve any further delay.
Some months ago, David McGuinty, at the time the
Executive Director of the National Round Table on the Environment and
the Economy and now a Liberal MP, proposed on national CBC radio that
the Sydney Tar Ponds project should be a showcase for the very best
remediation technology available in Canada. He further proposed that
the clean-up project could become the core of a Centre of Excellence
for site remediation technology that would attract visitors and
remediation technology buyers from all over the world.
In addition to
getting the site cleaned up in the best possible way, a Centre of
Excellence would bring significant economic benefits to Sydney and to
Canada.
The approach that McGuinty proposed is the essence of Sustainable
Development - an approach to designing activities and project in such a
way that they provide employment and other social benefits, economic
growth, and the cleanest possible environment. The Federal government
has made a strong commitment to the Sustainable Development approach.
Given the strong federal investment in the project and the Sustainable
Development opportunity that will be lost if the Tar Ponds Agency is
allowed to proceed using anything less than the best available
technology, I have written to Johanne Gélinas, Commissioner of the
Environment and Sustainable Development in the Office of the Auditor
General of Canada, asking her to conduct an investigation into whether
or not the Sydney Tar Ponds Agency is spending federal funds in a way
which is consistent with the federal government's commitment to
Sustainable Development.
Colin Isaacs
Canadian Institute for Business and the Environment,
Fisherville, Ontario
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