Alberta Association dumps on expansion plans for toxic waste plant

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The Indian Association of Alberta are calling for an independent study on the emission of the Swan Hills hazardous waste treatment plant.

The association maintains the plant is a white elephant which emits polychlorinated biphenols, a substance suspected to cause cancer, in excess of operating guidelines in other provinces.

Trace amounts of the carcinogens have been found in rodents and other wildlife in the area.

The Native groups are protesting the plant and plans to open up Swan Hills to imported hazardous wastes from outside of Alberta. The province originally maintained the plant would be used only for waste generated in Alberta to avoid increased transportation of toxic materials on provincial roadways.

The findings of an independent consultant shows the risk of imported wastes to waters, lands, and wildlife are more severe than those claimed by the consultant, reads a report from the association and the Lesser Slave Lake Indian Regional Council. It reports the risks increase with the 24 hour transportation and the doubling of air emissions of PCB and dioxin/furan contamination.

Even now, the report continues, the Swan Hill Waste Treatment Centre is operating with a "Titanic syndrome". The facility is not fully secure, and the monitoring and precautionary controls are inadequate, the Native groups purport.

Of considerable concern is the possible violation of Treaty rights particularly in the Lesser Slave Lake region.

"At the Natural Resources Conservation Board hearings two years ago, we were told by Chem-Security (Alberta) Ltd. that they could support their operations with Alberta wastes alone," said Chief Jim Badger of the Regional council. "We questioned that claim at the time, and it has since proven hollow."

Badger said the concern is with the health of the lake which serves the whole region. The Swan Hills plant is within 40 miles of the lake.

"The environmental risks are getting impossible to justify," he said.

The council warns the economic forecast by Chem-Security is totally unreliable

as well. The company now admits that its projected revenue in the first 10 years were inaccurate. Due to the inaccurate projections, the Swan Hills Waste Treatment Centre

is incurring substantial subsidies at public expense, reads the report.

The Native groups predict the company could cost Alberta taxpayers $540 million to $730 million in subsidies over the next 15 years. They call for the facility to be shut down instead of expanded.