By GORDON HOEKSTRA, Vancouver Sun, October 13, 2011
Communities fear an incinerator will further reduce air quality
A Metro Vancouver plan that could see a half-million tonnes of garbage burned annually to produce energy is expected to be a key municipal election issue in the Fraser Valley.
The Fraser Valley communities that lie outside Metro Vancouver’s boundaries fear an incinerator will pump more pollution into their airshed, which already faces air-quality problems because pollutants are often trapped in the valley.
Proponents of Metro’s waste-management plan say an incinerator is the best way to reduce pollutants emitted into the air, including from landfills, and will turn garbage into an energy resource.
Patricia Ross, chairwoman of the Fraser Valley Regional District, said voters are making it clear to her that they don’t want Metro Vancouver garbage polluting their airshed.
“I don’t know if you could call [opposition] unanimous, but I don’t think there’s a lot of people that are going to be elected in the Fraser Valley unless they are opposed to incineration,” said Ross.
She is seeking re-election to Abbotsford’s council in the municipal elections to be held throughout the province on Nov. 19.
Three months ago, Metro Vancouver’s directors voted 63-49 in favour of investigating burning waste to produce energy and dispose of 500,000 tonnes of garbage a year.
Over 35 years, Metro officials say, a waste-to-energy facility would outperform everything else, including landfills.
The provincial government has approved Metro Vancouver’s plans to possibly build a plant to burn garbage.
But the province has required Metro Vancouver to work with the Fraser Valley Regional District to address air-quality concerns.
That provides little comfort to communities in the Fraser Valley, said Ross.
“It’s frustrating to be constantly fighting these battles from people who don’t live here,” said Ross, pointing to a six-year fight to stop the Sumas 2 energy project just across the border in Washington state.
Surrey Coun. Marvin Hunt said he takes exception to the notion the garbage is simply being incinerated.
He stressed that the waste will be used to produce energy.
If you frame the debate around incineration, there will be little support, he argued.
“I want to go through a process to scour the world for technologies so we can have the best, cleanest technologies to deal with our garbage and waste because I don’t believe burying it is a good option,” said Hunt, who is also seeking re-election.
He said the debate is being clouded by emotion. He noted that open burning is allowed in the Fraser Valley while it is banned in Metro Vancouver, and that a garbage incinerator has operated in Burnaby for 25 years with few people aware it was there.
Metro’s contract with the operators of the Cache Creek landfill runs out in 2016.
That gives Metro Vancouver time to make a decision on the incinerator idea.
A request for proposals to industry is scheduled to be ready by early next year.
Metro Vancouver spokesman Bill Morrell said industry proposals are expected to range from standard mass incineration to other technologies that convert garbage into a gas before it’s burned.
Because Metro Vancouver decided to consider facilities both inside and outside its boundaries, Covanta Energy’s proposal to build an incinerator in a former pulp mill in Gold River on Vancouver Island, and a potential bid from Aquilini Renewable Energy for a facility on Tsawwassen First Nation land, will be eligible.
A decision on what type of facility to build and a location is likely up to 18 months away, and will be followed by a lengthy regulatory review process.
Also to be decided is whether Metro Vancouver would finance an estimated $500-million facility or have a private company build it and sign a long-term contract to provide garbage.
Morrell noted North Vancouver, New Westminster and Surrey expressed some interest in having an incinerator in their communities.
The environmental group, the Wilderness Committee, is unhappy with the plan to consider incinerating garbage.
Ben West, a Wilderness Committee campaigner, said the focus should be on diverting the amount of material that goes into landfills, not on incineration.
As part of Metro Vancouver’s new waste-management plan, proposed recycling rates were raised from 55 per cent of garbage today to targets of 70 per cent in 2015 and 80 per cent by 2020.
West would like to see Metro Vancouver move aggressively on this part of the plan.
He said burning garbage puts toxins into the air and leaves behind ash that still has to be put into landfills. “This stuff doesn’t just magically disappear,” said West.
But University of Victoria atmospheric scientist Andrew Weaver said the argument that incinerators pollute the air is misplaced, in part, because air pollution can be better controlled at an incineration facility than at landfills.
“This is viewed internationally as a solution, particularly in Europe where you have these facilities in cities downtown,” said Weaver.
ghoekstra@vancouversun.com
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