To the editor,
After having a conversation with South Bruce Mayor Robert Buckle about the 130,000 gallons of groundwater being pumped out of the mine daily for high-level nuclear waste, it raised more questions for me than answers.
Mayor Buckle informed me that the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) wants to dig one, and possibly two, enormous ponds to have enough water to keep the drill bits cool. The NWMO is contemplating getting the water out of the aquifer – that can be a problem for wells running dry; or they are contemplating getting the water from Lake Huron.
The NWMO needs a tremendous amount of water. After using the water in the mine, most of it goes back into one of the ponds. Pieces of rock and sediment can settle down before reusing the water again.
What are we doing with all that water in the ponds when the mining is done? Do we bring it back to Lake Huron? Do they want it back with all the contamination?
Mayor Buckle’s answer was, “this thing with the water came just up and I don’t have the answers.”
How did the NWMO come up with 130,000 gallons per day?
Is the water from Lake Huron being piped or trucked in?
Will there be contaminants in the water being pumped daily out the mine?
Will there be radon and other contaminants present in the water being pumped out of the mine?
After not having answers for my questions, Mayor Buckle says if we are the chosen site for the nuke dump in South Bruce, we have 10 years before they start drilling. We have enough time to figure out what to do and how to do it with the water.
So, I asked him, “You will sign on the dotted line and you don’t even know everything about what you are signing for?” I asked if you buy a car and sign on the dotted line and you don’t know if it’s a two-wheel drive or a four-wheel drive? Buckle says, “Sometimes you get a lemon!”
We, as residents, should know all the outcomes of the studies from the impact assessment process so there are no surprises and there is accountability from the NWMO. But these studies are being done after South Bruce signs the “deal” to degrade our area to become Canada’s nuclear waste zone. We need to know what we are signing up for before any contract is signed.
We don’t want any lemons!
#saynotonwmo
Rita Groen
South Bruce
