Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
6/5/2015
The Canadian government this week extended into December the federal review process for Ontario Power Generation’s deep geologic repository proposal to allow for an additional public comment period. Canada’s Minister of the Environment originally had 120 days to make a decision on the proposal following the submittal last month of a report from the Joint Review Panel overseeing the environmental assessment that backed the safety and environmental case for the project. But, with the addition of an extra public comment period, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency extended the deadline until Dec. 2, 2015, to allow for consideration of comments in the Minister of the Environment’s decision.
The focus of the public comment period centers on the potential conditions related to possible mitigation measures and follow-up requirements that could be necessary should the proposal receive authorization. “The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency is undertaking a public comment period for the last phase of the environmental assessment process for the proposed Deep Geologic Repository (DGR) Project for Low and Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste in Ontario,” the CEAA said in a release. “The Agency invites Aboriginal groups, members of the public and registered participants of the DGR review, to comment on the potential conditions related to possible mitigation measures and follow-up requirements that could be necessary, if the project is authorized to proceed.” The comment period ends Sept. 1, 2015.
The proposed repository would be located beneath OPG’s Bruce nuclear facility in Kincardine, Ont. OPG plans on storing low and intermediate waste from its Bruce, Pickering, and Darlington power stations at the proposed repository, which would be located 680 meters (approximately 744 yards) below the surface in an isolated rock formation of shale and limestone. The project has drawn the ire of citizens on both sides of the border because of its proximity to the Great Lakes, one of the world’s largest sources of fresh water.
Illinois Senator Urges Presidential Intervention
Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) urged President Barack Obama in a letter last week to engage the Canadian government to stop the construction of a proposed low-level radioactive waste deep geologic repository near the Great Lakes. Kirk pressed Obama to invoke the International Joint Commission, an organization that oversees the United States and Canada’s shared waterways, to perform an environmental assessment of the project. “As the co-chair of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force, I understand the serious threat this repository has on the long-term health of the Great Lakes Basin,” Kirk wrote. “We must ensure the environmental integrity of the Great Lakes for future generations to come. I urge you to use your authority to request an IJC study into this matter, to utilize Federal resources to properly assess the risks this proposal poses to the United States, and to request that the Canadian Government postpone its final decision until both parties of the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 properly consider the matter.”
Kirk joins a host of dissenters, including some members of the Michigan Congressional delegation who sent a similar letter to the President in 2013, that oppose Ontario Power Generation’s proposed repository in Kincardine, Ont. due to its proximity to one of the world’s largest sources of fresh water. Members of Michigan’s Congressional delegation introduced in April a resolution in the Senate and House that calls on the President and Secretary of State to intervene in the construction of the DGR.
