MPP Joins Calls for Full Assessment of Incinerator
August 31, 2005

Hamilton East MPP Andrea Horwath.

Hamilton east MPP Andrea Horwath has written to the provincial Minister of the Environment asking that the proposed Liberty Energy incinerator be required to undergo a full environmental assessment. The MPP joins Hamilton City Council and Environment Hamilton in the call for a thorough examination of the proposed facility which will process 1200 tonnes a day of sewage sludge.

Liberty Energy has recently begun a self-assessment process on the basis that it will be providing 'green' energy to up to 8000 homes. They argue the facility should not be called an incinerator because they are using a gasification process. Horwath says that "the application should be evaluated as a waste management project rather than a private energy power plant."

"Although power will be generated by the gasification of sewage and biomass," Horwath writes, "the major activity and business of this site appears to be the disposal of significant amounts of waste". Ministry officials have apparently accepted Liberty Energy's position on the type of assessment required, although those who disagree can ask for a "bump-up" of the assessment process to a more rigorous one.

Horwath details a number of concerns with the proposed facility including "initial drawings [that] indicate the smoke stack will be approximately 180 feet tall" as well as a 60 metre silo for onsite storage of the sewage sludge. The MPP's letter can be viewed at
http://hamiltoncatch.org/pdfs/Horwath-letter-LibertyEnergy.pdf.