getting government out of the business of being in the business of protecting our environment
In 1997, the hazardous waste treatment center in Swan Hills (which is owned by the Alberta provincial government and contracted out to the company I work for) exploded. Benzene vapours, which are usually gathered up by the ventilation system and incinerated, instead built up and ignited. Three workers came pretty close to being injured, and the containment of PCBs was compromised because the explosion had damaged the ventilation system. It's impossible to say how much of a leak into the surrounding atmosphere there might have been. Bovar, the Calgary-based company that owned 60% of the plant to the government's 40% at the time, suggested that noone should be too hasty in rushing to a negative judgment. Alberta's opposition parties felt differently, but a government report claimed there had been no short-term risk to the public.
What was interesting was that the company chose to inform the town of Swan Hills of the explosion immediately, but neglected to do the same for the native population who lived downwind of the plant.
The previous year, a mechanical failure caused a release of nasty dioxins into the atmosphere. Criminal charges were brought against the company, resulting in convictions and fines for failure to report emissions. Studies were conducted, and a 30 km circle was drawn around the plant, with all wildlife within the circle deemed unfit to eat. This ban led to litigations from the Lesser Slave Lake aboriginal communities, who dropped them two years later when they ran out of money.
What is unassailable is that the level of PCPs in the surrounding environment has risen dramatically. The incineration process is supposed to remove hazardous materials to a 99.999% degree. Even such minute emissions, however, make a cumulative difference. PCPs and other POPs don't just go away; when they're introduced into the environment on a cumulative basis, they will tend to accumulate.
And of course there's the mechanical and human errors that have brought that degree a little higher. A lot of the problems have to do with the rotating kilns used to incinerate the hazardous materials not working the way they're supposed to. The rotation is meant to expose all the surface area of the hazardous material to the flames, but it doesn't accomplish this, and attempts to make the kilns more effective have damaged them.
There are non-incineration methods of eliminating hazardous materials. I admit I don't know the first thing about them, but Canada needs to investigate them, because the ecosystem around the Swan Hills treatment centre is suffering. The signs, though, are not good.
We in Alberta are looking at an election of our own in November, announced just today. It is pretty much the opposite of a cliffhanger. Albertans will re-elect the Tories, who have systematically deregulated industry in Alberta, to disastrous effect with respect to the energy industry. Taxpayers have been losing gobs and gobs of money in Swan Hills, and the waste treatment center has been on the chopping block for a long time. If it were closed, a few of my company's brethren would lose their jobs and the town, who volunteered themselves for the site in the first place, would suffer economically. I kind of doubt it will be closed.
But it just might be privatized. And given the record of behaviour of the private owners of the Swan Hills plant in the past, that is a scary prospect.
What was interesting was that the company chose to inform the town of Swan Hills of the explosion immediately, but neglected to do the same for the native population who lived downwind of the plant.
The previous year, a mechanical failure caused a release of nasty dioxins into the atmosphere. Criminal charges were brought against the company, resulting in convictions and fines for failure to report emissions. Studies were conducted, and a 30 km circle was drawn around the plant, with all wildlife within the circle deemed unfit to eat. This ban led to litigations from the Lesser Slave Lake aboriginal communities, who dropped them two years later when they ran out of money.
What is unassailable is that the level of PCPs in the surrounding environment has risen dramatically. The incineration process is supposed to remove hazardous materials to a 99.999% degree. Even such minute emissions, however, make a cumulative difference. PCPs and other POPs don't just go away; when they're introduced into the environment on a cumulative basis, they will tend to accumulate.
And of course there's the mechanical and human errors that have brought that degree a little higher. A lot of the problems have to do with the rotating kilns used to incinerate the hazardous materials not working the way they're supposed to. The rotation is meant to expose all the surface area of the hazardous material to the flames, but it doesn't accomplish this, and attempts to make the kilns more effective have damaged them.
There are non-incineration methods of eliminating hazardous materials. I admit I don't know the first thing about them, but Canada needs to investigate them, because the ecosystem around the Swan Hills treatment centre is suffering. The signs, though, are not good.
We in Alberta are looking at an election of our own in November, announced just today. It is pretty much the opposite of a cliffhanger. Albertans will re-elect the Tories, who have systematically deregulated industry in Alberta, to disastrous effect with respect to the energy industry. Taxpayers have been losing gobs and gobs of money in Swan Hills, and the waste treatment center has been on the chopping block for a long time. If it were closed, a few of my company's brethren would lose their jobs and the town, who volunteered themselves for the site in the first place, would suffer economically. I kind of doubt it will be closed.
But it just might be privatized. And given the record of behaviour of the private owners of the Swan Hills plant in the past, that is a scary prospect.
posted by gibletquesterrs at 2:31 PM
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