The old argument is that it's too expensive. What ever the cost, it will still work out to be much cheaper than shipping our garbage to Rabanco in the United States regardless of of what the Regional Board might say. With Rabanco we always have to accept the possibility of law suits against the people of Powell River. Think of that cost when "you" are sued personally.
Shipping garbage to Rabanco shows a very dangerous naivete and blind trust in the Americans. If our regional politicians and our local newspapers think that the Rabanco contract is written in stone and will protect us against future law suits, I would say that they have a very limited understanding of the political arena.
The only thing that prevents a landfill from spewing out toxins and law suits is a bottom liner that will break down with age. Then it will all have to be dug up and "incinerated" while the law suits fly fast and furious. What happens if Rabanco fails us one day? What would we do with our garbage? Hide it in the bush? Even now with Rabanco, massive amounts of garbage is being dumped in the forests!
Pollution is another argument often used. Fact is that the pollution from a modern day incinerator is very negligible. The incinerators of today (not the older models), come with the latest technology to meet the high standards of pollution control issued by the government. Imagine the pollution we have now with people burning raw garbage in their fire places.
What about recycling? During the last local elections, the argument was to, get a recycling system in place and see what's left over. Then we would know how much we need to burn. They also added that there was no sense in getting a big incinerator to burn. what little little garbage we have, (20 tons a day aprox.) After all we can recycle most of it."
t would be nice if we could recycle all our garbage, but as stated below, only a small percentage of garbage can be recycled. And this figure can only be achieved if we have a recycling program running at peak efficiency. Right now, Powell River's recycling is in shambles.
In an article to the PR News, Wendy Young (the former Recycling Education Coordinator) admits that we have some very serious recycling problems. In the article titled "Recycling drop-off bins don't work," she states that public are using the drop-off bins as "handy garbage dumpsters." She should also said how our forests have become handy dumpsters too.
She goes on to indicate that Texada is paying "top dollar" for a new garbage problem and nothing is being done about it. So why does Bob Hagman Director for Texada fight so hard against getting a new incinerator?
Kissing up to Americans via Rabanco is foolish politics. People need to have an incinerator so that we can be, independent, free, self -sustaining., create cheap energy, and create more local employment.
The only thing that Rabanco will produce is expensive garbage rates and many law suits. It's time to stand up and say NO! to Rabanco.
Richard Vizzutti