The company that operates a controversial treatment centre near Swan Hills for PCBs and other toxic waste held a public open house in Slave Lake last Wednesday at Northern Lakes College.
The company that currently operates the treatment facility, Earth Tech, is in the process of putting together an application to renew its licence to operate, said Kanwer Khan, the environment, health and safety manager at the plant.
The application requires public consultation, and so open houses are being held in Swan Hills and nearby communities.
The treatment centre, which opened in 1987, operates under approval granted by the Alberta Environment ministry. The current licence was issued in 1995 and expires in December of this year.
The company plans to file its application to continue operating the plant in April, and comments it receives from the public during the open houses will be included in the application.
After the application has been filed, the public must be made aware through advertising in local newspapers, and anybody affected by the application may submit a statement of concern or appeal the decision to grant approval.
Earth Tech took over the operation of the plant in April 2003, two years after the previous owner, BOVAR Inc., left the industry and ownership reverted to the province.
The Swan Hills plant is used to treat hazardous waste, mainly by incineration, and is the only facility of its kind in Canada for treating PCBs.
Waste that can’t be incinerated, such as inorganic compounds like mercury and lead, are treated at the plant to change their chemical form and solubility and make them inert.
The plant doesn’t accept all types of toxic waste. Biological and nuclear waste, for instance, are not stored or treated at the plant.
The PCBs are what the plant is most famous for.
PCBs are an insulating oil that was once used in electrical equipment, hydraulic oil and sealants.
PCBs have not been commercially produced since 1977, and the amount of it that needs to be disposed of declines every year, but it will still be out there for years to come.
Until it’s gone, the centre in Swan Hills is the only place in Canada that can dispose of PCBs.
Earth Tech is required to test the environmental quality in and around the plant. Air, surface water, ground water, soil, vegetation, stream and lake sediment, and fish and wildlife are monitored.
According to Earth Tech’s own research, PCBs from the plant are getting into the environment.
Literature made available by the company at the open houses states, “Levels of some persistent organic compounds (e.g. PCBs) are elevated in the immediate vicinity of the facility in the soil, vegetation and wildlife (voles).”
The information the company makes available also states, “No effect on vegetation or wildlife has been attributed to these observed levels based on visual examination and population studies.”
Local environmental activists dispute this.
Jule Asterisk from the Regional Environmental Action Committee (REAC) says that there has been an impact and that the company needs to be more upfront about it.
“There is a health advisory against eating wildlife and game within a 30 km radius of the plant,” she says.
The Alberta government has warned against fishing, hunting and berry picking in the area, she says.
She also wants studies of impact on humans in area to released.
“They’re having an impact. There isn’t any doubt about it,” she says.
The members of REAC planned to meet on the weekend to discuss Earth Tech’s application to continue operating the plant.
Asterisk says that the environmentalists don’t want the plant shut down, but they do want Earth Tech to be more upfront about the impact the treatment centre has on the environment.
Asterisk says that she attended the open house and collected comment forms for REAC members to fill out.
“Our membership is quite upset and quite vocal,” she says.

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