MPP presses for assessment of east end sludge incinerator
June 14, 2006

Andrea Horwath declared in the legislature on Monday that "Hamilton doesn't want Toronto's sewage sludge and it doesn't want the pollution from Liberty Energy's proposed sewage sludge incinerator."

Hamilton East MPP Andrea Horwath is pressing the provincial government to order a full environmental assessment of a sewage sludge incinerator proposed for Strathearne Avenue by Liberty Energy. She's also raising an alarm about the possibility that Toronto's sludge may be heading to Hamilton.

Horwath declared in the legislature on Monday that "Hamilton doesn't want Toronto's sewage sludge and it doesn't want the pollution from Liberty Energy's proposed sewage sludge incinerator." She was referring to an announcement at the end of May that a Michigan landfill site has given notice that it will stop accepting Toronto sludge on August 1. The city currently sends 15 trucks of sludge a day to the US waste site.

A Toronto official told CBC News that the city will "put out a request for an Ontario solution" in response to the Michigan ban. But officials from both Waterloo and London have already made clear they want no part of the 160,000 tonnes of sludge produced by Toronto each year.

In a media release, Horwath says the failure of the McGuinty government to require a full environmental assessment of the Liberty Energy proposal "makes it all too easy for Toronto's sludge to be Hamilton-bound".

The Liberty proposal for a 650 tonne gasification facility was unveiled last year and underwent a category B environmental assessment that was submitted by the company in December. That resulted in demands for a full assessment from about a dozen groups and individuals including the city's waste reduction task force, the Beach Preservation Committee and Environment Hamilton.

The proposal is described by the company as an energy from waste project that will produce enough electricity to supply 8000 homes. As a result, the sludge incinerator falls under special assessment rules that fast-track new sources of energy, and allow them to avoid the full assessments usually required of waste management facilities.

Horwath charges that "the sewage sludge incinerator is skating around the environmental assessment process by inefficiently producing a small amount of energy." She told Broten in the legislature that "less than one fifth of the energy output from the incinerator is actually converted into electricity".

Dr David Pengelly, a nationally-recognized expert on health and air pollution was one of the individuals demanding a more thorough assessment. He pointed to the threat of chemical contamination as well as the emission of oxides of nitrogen which are now recognized as the most significant air pollutant in Hamilton.

"The NOx pollution introduced by this proposed facility is a matter of urgent public health concern" he declared, especially in light of the fact that "the Ontario air quality objectives for NO2 are based on scientific data that are 30 years old, and are not now protective of health."

Horwath cited Pengelly's concerns in asking if environment minister Laurel Broten would "listen to the public health experts, the residents and the city of Hamilton and immediately direct Liberty Energy to begin an individual environmental assessment for their proposed incinerator".

Broten responded that the people of Hamilton should be assured that the province "will examine all of the comments they put forward to ensure that their air is protected, that their environment is protected." There is some indication that review will be more rigorous than initially required.

A Ministry official wrote to Liberty Energy in early May saying he was "not satisfied that Liberty Energy has completed an appropriate level of study". James O'Mara, the director of the province's environmental assessment and approvals branch, ordered the company to prepare a cumulative air impact assessment to demonstrate "what additive impact this facility will have on the airshed in the City of Hamilton".

The company is also supposed to address "issues and concerns" raised by the opponents of the project, after which the ministry will decide whether or not to accept the requests for a full environmental assessment.

Monday's discussion in the Legislature can be viewed at
http://www.ontla.on.ca/hansard/house_debates/38_parl/
Session2/L088A.htm#P587_117343.

Earlier CATCH coverage on the Liberty Energy proposal is available at
http://www.hamiltoncatch.org/articles/art_0602/art_060207incinerator.htm.

The company's website is located at www.libertyenergycentre.ca.