February 27, 2016
1676
Dear members of Saugeen Shores council and Bruce County council:
RE: Your proposed letter of support for DGR 1 in Kincardine, to the minister of the environment and climate change
I am strongly opposed to the Town of Saugeen Shores council sending a letter of support for the proposed DGR 1 (Deep Geologic Repository) in Kincardine, on Feb. 29, 2016, or any other date. I am also opposed to Bruce County council sending a letter of endorsement on my behalf.
I am one of the thousand property owners in the Kincardine municipality who was never consulted about being a willing host. I find it abhorrent that OPG (Ontario Power Generation) and NWMO (Nuclear Waste Management Organization) are luring poor rural communities into becoming willing hosts by bribing their councils with promises of millions of pay-off dollars with no regard to the risk to the Great Lakes Basin and the populace living nearby. No DGRs should be considered anywhere close to the Great Lakes. Never!
Every day, new evidence emerges exposing the significant flaws in the OPG proposal to permanently bury radioactive nuclear waste in a DGR. The supposed science is largely based on assumptions, computer modelling and six bore holes. The site selection was based on convenience for OPG rather than a comprehensive site selection process, which is required.
The Environmental Assessment document presented by OPG was flawed and incomplete. 75-80 per cent of the radioactive material OPG proposes burying in the DGR will no longer be radioactive after 60 years, so why is the province spending billions of dollars and putting our fresh drinking water at risk for the 20 per cent of radioactive waste that could be successfully monitored above ground?
Within the past few weeks, the uncertainty of constructing DGRs was graphically demonstrated by the collapse of a tunnel during an underground scientific pre-test of similar geology for a DGR in Bure, France. A worker was killed and others injured. ASSE II in Germany is leaking and adversely affecting the ground water, crops, vegetation, birds and animals plus humans, particularly children, in the nearby vicinity.
The WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant) DGR in Carlsbad, New Mexico, is still closed after two years, following radioactive releases and underground fires that have endangered the lives of workers and the public. There is no remediation plan nor could any remediation be successful for the proposed DGR - just look at the consequences of Fukushima. An accident spells catastrophe and we cannot run the risk.
Other international accidents and closures of DGRs challenge the idea that a DGR will ever be built that is successful. You cannot ethically endorse a DGR that could cause us harm, and permanently wreck our Great Lakes. A leak from this DGR would be catastrophic for the 40-million people whose drinking water comes from the Great Lakes. Have you learned nothing from Flint, Michigan? Have you learned nothing from the water tragedy in our own county at Walkerton, Ontario, 15 years ago? Fresh water sustains life and commerce, especially in all the bordering communities on both sides of the border.
Our local and county councils should abandon their plans to support the DGR 1 in Kincardine on the shores of Lake Huron. They do not speak of the whole communities but for the councils' special interest in augmenting their budgets to the detriment of the health and property values of their citizens. There are not even any baseline studies being conducted to measure health effects from Bruce Power and the spills and accidents that they have tried to cover up.
On Feb. 29, Saugeen Shores council should scrap the motion or vote NO.
Sincerely,
Joanne Martin
RR 2, Tiverton
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