by NOEMI LOPINTO

Early last fall nearly 3,000 people descended on the sleepy New Brunswick village of Belledune to protest the construction of a high temperature thermal oxidizer facility (or toxic waste incinerator) on 20 acres of land within the Belledune industrial park. Bennett Environmental, the company building the incinerator, chose the site for its proximity to the U.S., its thriving port, well-established rail and highway transportation system and its pool of potential employees. However, they were greeted by a two-kilometre roadblock of residents from Quebec, New Brunswick and the nearby native reserves.

What residents resented the most was the perceived lack of public consultation. Bennett Environemental's construction project was approved on January 17, 2003, by the New Brunswick Environment Minister, Brenda Fowlie. The proposed fully-automated facility would treat approximately 100,000 tonnes of hydrocarbon- and creosote-contaminated soils and solid materials from eastern Canada and the northeastern United States per year for the next three years.

According to Bennett Environmental, approval was subject to 24 conditions, including a human health risk assessment, a public information session and the establishment of a community environmental liaison committee. But marine biologist Inka Milewski of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick says Bennett Environmental never conducted a full environmental impact study.

"Key issues were never examined," says Milewski, citing "transportation routes, a cumulative health assessment for the people of Belledune and how the project would add to existing contaminants in the environment. Transboundary issues and the fact that these emissions could have an impact in Quebec [were not addressed either]."

Look long-term

The Maritime Fisherman's Union has filed a petition with the federal government requesting that they intervene and force a full environmental impact assessment. If that doesn't work, a committee of 77 Belledune residents have appealed to a municipal court to revoke their construction permit.

The construction of the facility is taking place one kilometre away from the 38-year-old Belledune lead smelter, which is already the focus of some controversy. Toxic metals have been found in the soil, vegetation, crops and marine shellfish within a 16-kilometre radius of the smelter. The Conservation Council reported this past August that lead levels in the soil southeast of the smelter are 10 times higher than Canada's national guidelines for residential properties and 20 times higher than those established for agricultural use.

Milewski is worried about emissions, especially when combined with the smelter's. "When you incinerate anything you get emissions," Milewski says. "If there are any metals they will not burn. Lead, arsenic and mercury fall back into the ground. If there are any types of chlorinated compounds, they will react with hydrocarbons to create polychlorinated hydrocarbons. These are a soup of chemicals that, in combination, are potentially very harmful."

Belledune's port is on the Baie des Chaleurs, a narrow but fairly deep bay 20 kilometres away Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula. There are still some fisheries there, and eco-tourism and an organic agricultural industry are developing. Gaspé residents have reacted to the news by forming Coalition Retour à l'Expéditeur, a grouping of 200 organizations that has organized petitions, marches and an upcoming benefit concert on Jan. 31, featuring Kevin Parent and Bruce Cockburn, in Campbellton, N.B. Coalition representative Geneviève St-Hilaire says Bennett Inc.'s environmental impact studies were "entirely virtual."

"The data was based on hypothesis, fictional scenarios," says St-Hilaire. "In the company study, meteorological data used to evaluate the fall of emissions came from Gaspé and Sept-Îles, hundreds of kilometres from Belledune. What we need is data on the effect on Belledune, or Charlo, which is 15 kilometres away."

Waste goes north

More than 20,000 Gaspésiens have signed the coalition's petition demanding a complete and independent study, and the coalition signed a formal resolution against the importing and incineration of toxic wastes in the region. The soil to be incinerated would be imported by truck or train from the site of a former wood preservatives company in Manville, New Jersey. The city of Manville had built a mall and homes on the land until the Environmental Protection Agency discovered high levels of cancer-causing toxins. The EPA then relocated 17 families and sold the soil treatment rights to the highest bidder: Bennett Environmental.

Bill McIntyre, media representative for Bennett Environmental, says the whole process has been misrepresented. "The terms 'toxic waste' and 'incineration' are inaccurate," says McIntyre. "We do not incinerate anything. We're building a thermal oxidizer to treat contaminated soil. Toxic waste is one thing, soil contaminated by hydrocarbons is another. You can't burn soil."

The contamination in the soil in this project is mostly creosote, a product used on railway ties and telephone poles. But Bennett Inc. is licensed to treat silt, dewatered sediments, sand, aggregate, stone, brick, concrete, asphalt, roots, wood and steel. Activists fear that following the Manville contract, Bennett will use the facility to treat a more varied list of contaminants.

"We operate under Canadian and American hazardous waste legislation and we are very tightly monitored," says McIntyre. "We had conditions to meet, we produced an independent human health risk assessment, and it was peer reviewed by independent scientists. The reality is that the opponents do not want to accept our findings. The soil is not toxic, not even hazardous."

Toxic trail

The waste follows a travel route selected by government authorities. It comes to the plant and is stored inside until it's treated. The contaminated soil is heated to 650 degrees centigrade to make the contaminants gaseous instead of liquid. Then they are siphoned off into a secondary burner where they are heated to 1,000 degrees, and in that process are destroyed. When that soil comes out, it is tested again. If it does not meet agriculture standards, it's shipped to a secure landfill site. Out of the 100,000 treated tonnes, McIntyre says that no more than 10 to 15 per cent will need to be stored in landfill or on hazardous waste facilities. That 15 per cent will go to hazardous waste sites in LaSalle, Lac St-Jean or St-Ambroise, Quebec.

Inka Milewski says the prospect of taking waste generated somewhere else and bringing it here doesn't make sense. "It is our view that waste should be dealt with where it is generated. There is a real risk that countries could become waste dumps because of a lack of legislation. The question was asked at a public meeting sponsored by the (New Brunswick) Department of Health and Wellness, to Bennett: Will you promise that you will never import PCBs here? The answer was: 'We'll see.' I think the citizens are uneasy about what happens after three years."