Questions from a new resident

To Powell River Legacy group:

Hello,
We are here for a few months and own a property on King Ave. We are from the US, but would be willing to sign a petition. Our home is near Los Alamos National Lab, which is one of the US's main toxic problems. There are questions:
        Is the new expansion going to follow the highest standard, state of the art containment?
        What is the life expectancy of the barrier between the waste and the soil?
        What is the plan to move the material once the barrier fails?
        What is keeping the material from being air borne?
        Is there any way of making the material inert?

Is there support from other parts of the city? My husband and I had a major neighborhood problem in our area of Santa Fe, New Mexico which lasted 6 years. Our neighborhood tried to deal with it ourselves, but in the end it was the lack of city wide support that led to our downfall.

Reply 1 from the PR Legacy group:

Your letter really touches me because I also moved here in the last year looking for a healthy and beautiful place to live. This place has the potential for being one of the most healthy and beautiful places to live in  the world. It is an ideal climate for growing food and the beauty of this place is astounding. So when I got a little notice in my mail slot telling me what was up at the top of Wildwood hill, I was floored.

As to your questions...

Catalyst’s landfill proposal would have you believe that state of the art containment methods will be used in the construction of the landfill. If the plans that they have were taking place at a new site, far from residences, not on a seismic risk zone, and not over a previously contaminated site and didn't rise 90 feet in the air, etc., all that might be true. But those things ARE true, and no matter what barrier Catalyst plans to place under their "phase 2", the site simply can't be made safe, no matter what technology is used to try and safeguard further contamination.

We don't know what the life expectancy is on the barrier between waste and soil. We do know that all landfill liners leak  due to inevitable breakdown of materials, and that there would come a day sooner or later when all the materials buried there would be free to migrate through soil and groundwater. There is NO liner under the old landfill and contamination has already occurred there. And Catalyst would most probably not be around to take care of it at that point.

Catalyst says that their method of slurrying flyash will keep it from being airborne, but this has not been proven to be true thusfar.

There are methods of reducing the contamination levels of the flyash, but silica content is still an issue due to particle size. There are also ways to clean the flyash (or clean up burning methods) so that it is useful as a product, but the company has been unwilling to commit to this.

All that being said, you need to know that this is a wonderful, vibrant, energetic place to live and that you have some wonderful neighbors around you. If anybody can safeguard this place for future generations, it will be us as a community. We are committed to this place and to each other, and that in itself helps makes it a "healthy" place to live. Our work is ongoing and we will do whatever it takes to makes this community prosperous, beautiful and healthy.

Reply 2 from the PR Legacy group:

Dear new resident -

Welcome to Powell River!
 
The questions you are asking are much the same as we are asking of Catalyst Paper Co. Some of the  questions seem to have an answer and others are still very much a part of the discussion. I am glad that you mention an option of "making the material inert"  as this is what we are hoping the company will do when they find a use for the fly ash they are producing.

About the only answer that we can give you is about the support we in Wildwood are receiving from people who live in all of Powell River, and that has been truly encouraging. We have active supporters from all of the City and the surrounding regional district- we are very thankful for that.

These are serious questions which we are attempting to have answered by Catalyst Paper and B.C. Ministry of Environment.

good luck.