Archive for November, 2009

The Save Kamloops coalition is holding the Clear the Air all-ages benefit dance on Saturday, Nov. 7.

The event will feature three live bands: Roxanne Hall and Friends, The Genghis Gandhis and The Well Hungarians, all of whom are donating their time, with all proceeds going to help Save Kamloops mount an appeal to fight Domtar’s permit to build two air-emission stacks in the valley bottom and to oppose the Aboriginal Cogeneration Corporation’s proposed creosote-tie burning facility in the same vicinity.

Tickets, which are $15 each, must be bought in advance and are available at Grinder’s Coffeehouse, The Smorgasbord Deli and Movie Mart.

They can also be purchased by calling 250-376-1550 or 250-579-5061.

The dance will be held at the Ukrainian Hall, 725 York St.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.

By Jeremy Deutsch – Kamloops This Week

Published: October 29, 2009 11:00 AM
Updated: October 29, 2009 11:53 AM

2 Comments

In the wake of one company’s attempt to set up a cogeneration plant to burn railway ties in Kamloops, the manner in which the city weighs in on environmentally sensitive projects is set to change.

City council has given the go-ahead for staff to change its 15-year-old policy on pollution-control permit referrals to the Ministry of Environment (MOE).

The changes will mean all referrals will need a response by city council — and the timeline to respond has been extended to 60 days from 30 days.

Any environmental-protection notice must also now appear in a city council agenda for information to the public.

The MOE insists any application for an environmentally sensitive project involve public consultation, which includes input from the city.

This year alone, the city has dealt with three environmental-protection referrals, including Domtar’s air-quality permit extension, the Aboriginal Cogeneration Corporation’s plan to build a gasification plant that would burn rail ties and one from SBC Fire Master.

Both Domtar and the ACC’s applications drew protests from residents each time council was asked for its input.

In the case of the ACC, council was in the dark on the application after an internal miscommunication meant the information wasn’t circulated to councillors.

Instead, the director of public works and utilities, David Duckworth, signed off on the referral — which he was allowed to do — without council getting the information.

As it turned out, a group opposed to the ACC’s application marched on city hall last month and council eventually decided against supporting the project.

Some on council were pushing for an even greater onus on the city to get the word out on referrals, to the point of taking ads out in newspapers to alert the public.

Coun. Denis Walsh argued the city has a duty to notify the public when an application has the potential to “affect everybody in the community.

“They should be aware of it,” he said.

But Mayor Peter Milobar disagreed.

He said he doesn’t want the city to be responsible for doing work that should be carried out by the company.

“Quite frankly, it gives the applicant an out,” he said.

“It’s up to the applicant to prove to the ministry [MOE] that they engaged the public and stakeholders.”

Milobar said the change in policy is meant to correct problems such as the miscommunication on the ACC’s application, not to change the MOE’s process.

Duckworth said the city was already planning to change its policy, but the three applications in one year created a sense of urgency.

“It just brings us really into 2009,” he told KTW. “We should have done this a long time ago.”

Grouchy1
I tend to agree with you smokit. If it is the applicants job to notify residents of the application then council should make it law. Putting a sign up at the proposed site does not cut it either, how many people actually frequent these areas ? They should have to have it on the front page of our local papers and on the radio and tv.

smokit
If a citizen has an extra barking dog, it can bother four or five neighboors and city counsel is very concerned about those few, to the point of getting rid of the extra dog. When it comes to poison in our lungs that one company is emitting for their own personal financial gain, then counsel is stand-offish, washing their hands of the problem, all in the name of tax money. Counsel has a master and it is not us citizens, it is money.