It’s a WIN for the Bay of Fundy, not so much… for Brookfield and Alton, Nova Scotia. As previously mentioned, the remaining fracking wastewater will be processed by LaFarge, the cement plant in Brookfield. But a big kudos to the Colchester County council and Sewer Use Committee for their decision to not allow it to be processed through the Debert Sewer Treatment plant, from where it would eventually find its way into the Bay of Fundy.
At LaFarge, what doesn’t get evaporated by the Kiln, lands on the ground and in the water around homes. Bio-accumulation of Radium 226 will mean more, than the tests results accounted for and when it decays it becomes Radon, which will leak into the basements of nearby homes.
At the same time, there is still 4% of the solution that has never been disclosed, so it’s hard to say whether these chemicals will still persist. Plus… Shortts Lake and the river nearby, may wind up containing some of the waterways which could eventually leak into the ground water being pumped into people’s homes.
Several US states are banning the move to mix the frack waste off and use it up by spreading it on dirt roads to keep the dust down. They wouldn’t get away with that here. According to the Nova Scotia Environment Act, section 2a and 2b:
- the polluter-pay principle confirming the responsibility of anyone who creates an adverse effect on the environment that is not de minimis (not trival) to take remedial action and pay for the costs of that action;
- taking remedial action and providing for rehabilitation to restore an adversely affected area to a beneficial use;
So Randy Delorey, minister of the environment has said that since it is being mixed with the cement dust and shot out of the kiln, it is in fact evaporated and no longer an environment issue. This lets them all off the hook.
Tests done, after the pilot run at LaFarge only included 6 homes in a 5km radius around the plant which shows the increased risk of cancer created was very minimal and well within acceptable limits. This doesn’t take into account how the RA-226 and some of the other chemicals bio-accumulate nor the Radon created when it decays. Or, how much stronger it will become by processing more wastewater this way. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking.
Colchester County Council doesn’t have the authority to prevent this from happening. There isn’t anything they can do. The responsibility of this is the provincial government, and local representatives have refused to have an open dialogue about it. Speculation would suggest they have been instructed NOT to discuss it. How can you have a democracy, without addressing issues of concern with the citizens who elected you? Did they forget their promise of transparency? How can we trust them?
We can’t!
Groups like, this one are springing up all over North America, where groups of concerned citizens band together to show their support against government tyranny. New laws are quickly outlawing protests and many people are being labeled as terrorists. Fortunately we are within our legal rights to petition the government and that’s what we need to do in this case Sign the petition asking the Honourable Stephen McNeil, and Honourable Randy Delorey to stop processing fracking wastewater through LaFarge.
There’s no safe amount of toxin or foreign chemical we can ingest with impunity. The dance with toxins is a game of chemical Russian Roulette.
The ideal solution would be to ship it out west where it can be processed through a facility that is built to handle it and then sold back to the fracking companies for re-use. This is how they handle the wastewater in Alberta, but then they don’t have a bay to dump it in or towns that they would be allowed to spread it through.