Don't mess up garbage issue

It's obvious that, if we want to live in a clean environment, we have to take care of garbage we leave behind.

Metro Vancouver creates a huge amount of garbage -- about 3.6 millions tonnes annually -- which either has to be incinerated, put in a landfill or disposed of in some other manner.

Whatever method is used poses some pollution problem. Which is why the region is looking at new "waste-to-energy" technology to dispose of the 500,000 tonnes of its garbage a year it currently trucks to a landfill in Cache Creek.

That landfill will reach its capacity in 2010. And hopes of finding another landfill in the B.C. Interior were dashed, due to opposition from local natives.

Last January, the regional government began to pursue the the idea of using plants equipped with the new technology -- hence avoiding the need to truck garbage to the Interior or Washington State.

It's estimated that up to six waste-to-energy units, which use garbage as the feedstock to produce electricity, would be needed to serve Metro Vancouver's garbage-disposal requirements.

Proponents of this plan say the new plants don't produce the same high emissions as current trash-burning generators. Some of them, however, are the same folks who are developing and preparing to sell this technology. So, of course, they're going to present it in the best possible light.

Opponents of the plan, meanwhile, argue that the technology is still a form of incineration and, as such, will still put pollutants into the air.

And here's the rub. The prevailing westerly winds in our region continually push Greater Vancouver's pollution into the Fraser Valley -- where it tends to get trapped by the surrounding mountains.

So there is no margin for error.

Our view is that, with the valley's airshed stretched already, this is not the place to try a new technology without first conducting the most rigorous testing -- in local conditions and under all kinds of weather.

After all, this is a decision that could haunt valley residents for decades to come.

The Province

Published: Monday, June 30, 2008