Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) urged President Barack Obama in a letter last week to engage the Canadian government to stop the construction of a proposed low-level radioactive waste deep geologic repository near the Great Lakes. Kirk joins a host of opponents, including some members of the Michigan Congressional delegation, who sent a similar letter to the President in 2013, that oppose Ontario Power Generation’s proposed repository in Kincardine, Ont. due to its proximity to one of the world’s largest sources of fresh water. Kirk pressed Obama to invoke the International Joint Commission, an organization that oversees the United States and Canada’s shared waterways. “As the co-chair of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force, I understand the serious threat this repository has on the long-term health of the Great Lakes Basin,” Kirk wrote. “We must ensure the environmental integrity of the Great Lakes for future generations to come. I urge you to use your authority to request an IJC study into this matter, to utilize Federal resources to properly assess the risks this proposal poses to the United States, and to request that the Canadian Government postpone its final decision until both parties of the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 properly consider the matter.”
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