Posted: 04/26/2012 Huffinigton Post
WASHINGTON -- A new kind of genetically modified crop under the brand name of "Enlist" -- known by its critics as "Agent Orange corn" -- has opponents pushing….details here.
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PLT: Rest assured, Canadian "regulators" will be slavering at the prospect of rubber-stamping this Frankenfood here, as well!
Dear Editor,
I'd like to
extend a challenge to my local government, the Rural Municipality of Shell
River.
(Please read earlier story here.)
I'd like you to prove to myself and my community that you are
living in the 21st century and determined to be the best that you can be. So
far, you've been moving quietly ahead with plans to build a major, new,
earthen sewage lagoon, using technology that is, at least, decades-old.
An expert in the field of waste treatment and water pollution, Prof.
Bill Paton of Brandon University, says such lagoons "Do not perform well in
Manitoba's climate. I have not found any Manitoba lagoons that meet
effluent license requirements. Many of them also leak to groundwater!"
And a former potato
farmer I have talked to, Al Baron, says he had to abandon his farm near
Carberry years ago when expansion of a nearby lagoon contaminated his land,
making it unfit to carry on as a producer.
You didn't tell us much
about the project when we appeared before one of your Council meetings earlier
this month.
Is there not better technology than the kind you are
considering, we asked? Well, not really. Maybe in Europe, was your vague
reply.
Well, it turns out, there is a Manitoba company called Blue Diamond
Technologies (BDT), which already has a system up and running, treating hog
waste at a barn south of Winnipeg! Furthermore, this company believes its
technology can apply to sewage, would be more environmentally friendly and
even cheaper than the lagoon you are
persuing at a possible cost of $2 million!
I've talked to an official
of BDT myself. He says they are quite prepared to meet with your Council, to
talk about this promising technology.
I now understand you have agreed to hear
from them at your next meeting.
I am encouraged by this. And I
sincerely hope you will actually listen carefully to the presentation and
treat it as more than just a formality.
While the lagoon may be built
less than a mile upwind of our country home (we are not sure, since you won't
tell us the results of the soil-tests done there), that is not really the
point. I believe you owe our entire community your best efforts in doing this
thing right, no matter where it goes.
As you have apparently held at least one in-camera meeting to
discuss this, there are many other details that remain unanswered.
Has
there been any kind of detailed study on the need for this project? (Rumours
that it was needed to serve a new cottage subdivision being planned for Lake
of the Prairies, seem to have been just that - rumours.)
While you
do say a feasibility study is
underway, you won't commit to making it public when it is
finished.
Will there be an Environmental Impact Statement?
Will
there be a public hearing?
You have not given us clear answers to any
of these things.
On the one hand, we are told not to worry, because
everything is "preliminary." On the other, you are dropping hints that
you need to proceed quickly because you may lose government infrastructure
money, if you do not.
Which is it?
All I ask is that
alternatives be considered more carefully than they appear to have been, to
date.
Thank you.
Larry Powell
Roblin,
MB
