Nova Scotia Premier, Tim Houston has put forward a bill to lift bans on fracking and uranium. The CBC says, “There's been a moratorium on uranium exploration for more than 40 years and a ban on mining it for 15 years.” Houston believes there are ways to exploit these resources while “while meeting provincial greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. However, there have been no new studies since 2014 when the ban on fracking was initiated, and there any weren’t solid gas emissions targets in place. To make a determination now, would only be guess work.

An email was sent to Tom Taggart, MLA for Colchester North, on Tuesday, February 25, asking if there were any plans on how fracking wastewater would be disposed of, but there hasn’t been any comment received from Mr. Taggart.

The last time Nova Scotia processed fracking wastewater in 2015, it was processed by LaFarge, the cement plant in Brookfield, Nova Scotia. To repeat this process on a larger scale, means 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.

This was mentioned in an article, Stop LaFarge using Fracking Wastewater, that I wrote on May 2, 2015.

In the CBC article, he’s questioned, “Uranium is also a concern, Arnason McNeil said. Despite advancements in how uranium is retrieved, there remain environmental and health risks associated with the radioactive waste products that come from mining the element, he said.

In response, Houston said assessments and research will be done to protect the province.

However, shortly after Houston joined the Conservative party in 2013, federal Prime Minister, Stephen Harper was destroying the evidence he would need to do these assessments.  Federal programs and research facilities that have been shut down or had their funding reduced as Houston joined the Conservatives include:

• Environmental Emergency Response Program
• Urban Wastewater Program
• Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences
• Smokestacks Emissions Monitoring Team
• Hazardous Materials Information Review Commission
• National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy
• Municipal Water and Wastewater Survey
• Environmental Protection Operations
• Compliance Promotion Program
• Action Plan on Clean Water
• Sustainable Water Management Division
• Environmental Effects Monitoring Program
• Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan
• Chemicals Management Plan
• Canadian Centre for Inland Waters
• Clean Air Agenda
• Air Quality Health Index
• Species at Risk Program
• Weather and Environmental Services
• Substance and Waste Management
• Ocean Contaminants & Marine Toxicology Program
• Conservation and Protection Office in Nova Scotia
• Plus much, much more.

It was incredible that so many environmental groups have been terminated. Their valuable contributions will no longer be available to the government or the public.

The fracking wastewater, generated by companies that also engage in this activity, is toxic as well. With chemicals including and not limited to:

• Methanol
• Isoproponal
• Ethoxylated Alcohol
• Trisodium Nitrotriacetate
• Sodium Persulphate
• Diethylene Glycol Monomethyl Ether
• Acrylamide Copolymer
• Fatty Acid Esters
• Terpene
• Alcohol Alkyl Alkoxylate

There are also radioactive NORMs (Radioactive Naturally Occurring Material) and very possibly Methylene Bis (Thocyanate) and 2-(Thiocyanomethylthio) Benzothiozole biocides which are rated with the highest toxicity category of the US EPA.

A lot of the information stored for decades by the EPA was previously destroyed by President Trump in 2021. It’s pretty easy to do a quick search and realize the enormity of such an undertaking.

Houston said, "As projects come forward, there will be extensive reviews, consultation. The process will be followed. Having just a blanket ban — that's lazy policy," he said.

Lazy... if I may, Mr Houston, is not doing your homework.