FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP CHARGES FEDERAL RADIOACTIVE WASTE COVER-UP

PEMBROKE, Ontario, December 4, 1995 - An Ottawa Valley environmental group is calling a federal task force report on radioactive wastes "a deliberate attempt to mislead and silence the public".

The November 24 report describes a plan for dealing with over a million tonnes of low-level radioactive wastes. The wastes are from over 50 years of uranium and radium refinery operations in Port Hope, Ontario. The report proposes dumping the wastes in a giant cavern on lands of Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd. (AECL) in Chalk River, Ontario. It recommends that the federal Minister of Natural Resources, Anne McLellan, approve public funding for the new dump. It also requests that she exempt the dump from any further public hearings under the federal environmental assessment process.

The local group, Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County (CCRC), accuses the task force of covering up the negative economic, social, and environmental costs of the proposal. The group claims the dump would permanently contaminate the Ottawa River, 500 metres from the proposed site. It cites technical studies predicting that wastes would start leaching into the river in less than 100 years. CCRC says this would "move a leaking radioactive waste dump from the shores of Lake Ontario, and create a new leaking dump along side of the Ottawa River".

CCRC charges the task force report with failing to provide believable cost estimates, ignoring worker radiation exposures, and ignoring long-term health effects on downstream communities. The group warns that AECL would be allowed to dump its own higher-level radioactive wastes in the cavern. It notes that the proposal has not been reviewed by federal or provincial agencies responsible for protecting health and the environment.

The federal task force is citing an October 1995 referendum in the town of Deep River, Ontario as evidence of public support for the proposal. Voters there approved a deal worth more than $30 million in return for "volunteering" to host the facility. The deal, negotiated between the task force and Deep River council members who work for AECL, contains a promise to keep AECL jobs at March 1995 levels until the year 2010. CCRC claims the referendum reflects a combination of bribery and job blackmail. It maintains that the task force ran false advertisements claiming human health and water resources would be protected.

CCRC also maintains the task force is misleading the Minister by not describing concerns of downstream communities. These communities were excluded from the compensation talks and the referendum, although they face transport of the waste through their communities and contamination of their water supplies.

CCRC is urging Minister McLellan to reject the task force recommendations and abandon the radioactive dump project. The group also opposes exempting radioactive waste disposal from public hearings. Although it supports efforts to deal with Canada's legacy of leaking radioactive waste dumps, including those at AECL - Chalk River as well as those in the Port Hope area, it maintains these efforts should be done in the context of a full Panel review under the terms of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.