Waste-to-energy schemes just hype, says top scientist

"Magic machines" that would cleanly burn Metro Vancouver's garbage are just promoters' hype, says a retired chemistry professor.

Paul Connett, who will address a forum tonight, says Metro's plan to build six waste-to-energy plants are based on faulty science.

"The proponents' hype revolves around stories of magic machines, Connett said yesterday.

"They are incinerators in disguise. They convert solids into gases and then burn the gases. It leads to the same problems as incinerators," he said.

"They are not a closed loop where gases don't escape. There are tailpipes at the end, which emit pollutants."

Connett, one of the world's leading experts in waste management, is a professor emeritus at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y.

He has travelled to 50 countries, 49 states and eight provinces in the past three decades to warn about the follies of waste-to-energy plants. He does not charge a fee.

He said the industry makes false claims of emitting zero dioxins (chemical compounds which accumulate in humans) and zero particulates (extremely small matter which penetrates lung tissue).

"I predict there will be dramatic increases in asthma rates in the Fraser Valley if the plants are built," said Connett, adding the plants will cost up to $2 billion.

Metro Vancouver wants to build waste-to-energy facilities to dispose of the region's 3.6 million annual tonnes of garbage.

It says the plants are needed because its current landfill at Cache Creek will close in 2010.

Vancouver Coun. Suzanne Anton said the technology is a viable solution.

"There are miniscule emissions," she said. "They are not like the old incinerators pumping smoke through the Fraser Valley.

"New waste-to-energy facilities are light years different from the past. In Europe, they put them in the middle of their towns.

"The technologies out there seem to be working."

The Fraser Valley Regional District and University of the Fraser Valley are sponsoring tonight's forum. It runs from 7 to 9 p.m. at Abbotsford City Hall.

Tomorrow there's a forum in New Westminster ,7 p.m. at Knox Presbyterian Church hall, and on Wednesday there's one in Vancouver, 7 p.m. at the Coast Plaza Hotel, 1763 Comox St.

Kent Spencer, The Province

Published: Monday, June 23, 2008

kspencer@png.canwest.com