Antinuclear

Group opposed to nuclear waste facility presents petition containing 92,000 signatures, January 31, 2016 By Jim Bloch, The Voice, Ontario  As a single individual, it’s often hard to imagine that you can affect national events. But if you join together with 92,000 others, your impact can grow.

That’s the hope of Beverly Fernandez, founder of Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump, the nonprofit organization dedicated to derailing the plans of Ontario Power Generation to bury 200,000 cubic yards of low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste in a 2,200-foot-deep repository in Kincardine, Ontario, within a mile of Lake Huron.

On Jan. 19, Fernandez, on behalf of STGLND, delivered a petition containing more than 92,000 signatures and more than 31,000 comments to new Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna.

“The signatures and comments send a very clear message to the Canadian government,” Fernandez said. “OPG’s nuclear waste burial and abandonment plan poses unacceptable risks to the drinking water of 40 million Canadians, Americans and Indigenous Peoples and must be rejected.”

McKenna is scheduled to make a decision about the proposal by March 1.   ……….

STGLND opposes burying nuclear waste anywhere in the Great Lakes Basin.

“This petition stands alongside the more than 22 million people represented by 184 resolutions opposed to OPG’s plans to bury and abandon nuclear waste, some of which will stay toxic for 100,000 years,” said the letter to McKenna.

Resolutions opposing the nuclear waste facility have been passed by nearly every city, township and county in the Blue Water Area, as well as the Michigan Senate.

“We encourage you to carefully review and give weight to the thoughtful comments of concerned citizens who have signed the petition and expressed their opposition,” Fernandez wrote to McKenna. “Given the large number of petition comments, we are providing a sample selection for your perusal.”…..

The vast majority of signees of the STGLND petitions are everyday residents of the Great Lakes Basin, especially Ontario and Michigan. But a number of highly visible politicians and professionals signed the petition.

“Petition signatories include First Nation Chiefs and Peoples, prominent and distinguished Canadians, former Assistant Deputy Attorney General (Ontario), former deputy minister of the environment (Ontario), Companions, Officers and Members of the Order of Canada, doctors, scientists, geologists, professors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, artists, church leaders, members of Canada’s armed forces, and U.S. politicians and citizens (of) the U.S. and of other countries of the world,” Fernandez wrote.

Among the signees were six First Nation Chiefs, but not the nearby Saugeen Ojibway, the consent of which OPG says is critical to the project; three MPs; Dr. John Sass, a Port Huron and Grand Bend resident and retired geologist who worked on the U.S. Geological Survey regarding nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain; the late Farley Mowatt, environmental writer; Dr. Gordon Edwards, who has spoken numerous times in Port Huron about the waste facility; Michigan State Sens. Phil Pavlov (R-St. Clair Twp.) and Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-Taylor); and Michigan State Rep. Sarah Roberts (D-St. Clair Shores).

Hernandez hoped to submit the 184 resolutions opposing the facility to McKenna in the week following the submission of petitions.

Jim Bloch is a freelance writer. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com   http://www.voicenews.com/articles/2016/01/31/news/doc56abc68fd73d5399207461.txt?viewmode=3