To the editor,
Deep geological repository (DGR) = money = perpetual growth… but what about the environment?
After hearing from South Bruce candidates for council in last week’s all-candidate debates, it would appear to me that this election boils down to one issue above all others – this community’s “willingness” to be home to a DGR, and if one were to believe current council members seeking re-election, how our willingness will bring economic salvation to us all. As I have said before, this neatly dovetails with the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s (NWMO) full-page ads and glossy flyers we get. The ones, for over three months now, urging us to just “imagine the possibilities” should we support the DGR. In speech after speech, current council members echoed this mantra as if nothing else matters. Oh yes, with the exception that we can still maintain our small-town ambience while pursuing such accelerated growth. Kind of like we can have our small-town cake, and eat it too.
That didn’t happen in Port Elgin or Kincardine, and it won’t happen here… but then again, I’m just a hopeless cynic.
So what about the environment? And the risks this DGR brings to the Great Lakes and our local waterways? Little or no concern was heard from candidates, with the exception of those formerly associated with Protect Our Waterways. Was the environment not the initial concern most of us have had from day one of this proposal? Whether one believes the concept of a DGR is the internationally-accepted way to dispose of toxic waste or not, what the NWMO will be doing is indeed an experiment. An unproven process both above ground in processing the waste and in depositing it forevermore underground. Just 30 km from Lake Huron!
And for the record, not all international associations agree with the NWMO’s proposal. In April of this year, the International Joint Commission (IJC) published a report, along with a map pinpointing 38 locations around the Great Lakes of long-standing nuclear waste sites. All of which they warned will be vulnerable to future climate change impacts. They urged the nuclear industry in the report to relocate those waste sites out of the Great Lakes Basin, noting that they collectively bring a great risk to the Great Lakes. They also expressed in the report their opposition to any permanent DGR disposal site within the Great Lakes Basin. Along with the above ground processing and interim storage done on the site, all will be susceptible to the impact of climate change.
In any case when, if you haven’t already, you vote in this municipal election to remember that, to paraphrase an old campaign slogan: “It is not just the economy, stupid.” We need to also consider the risks to the environment when we cast our ballots.
David Wood
Mildmay
