Thomas Gardiner
An amendment to a U.S. House spending bill passed last week added another layer of open opposition to plans for an underground nuclear waste repository across the border near Lake Huron in Ontario, Canada.
The House on Sept. 14 approved government-wide appropriations legislation for fiscal 2018. Included in that bill was an amendment from Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.) that would prohibit using federal funds for the International Joint Commission for attendance of a yearly water resource conference in Canada.
The provision, approved on a voice vote, is intended to send a message against Ontario Power Generation’s plan for a facility that would hold 200,000 cubic meters of low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste from three nuclear power plants 680 meters below ground. The utility’s preferred location, at its Bruce nuclear plant, is less than a mile from Lake Huron in the municipality of Kincardine.
The Great Lake lies between Michigan and Ontario, so lawmakers from the Wolverine State have been particularly sensitive to the potential location of the waste site.
“As I have long said, building a nuclear waste repository along the shore of Lake Huron is nothing short of irresponsible,” Mitchell said in a prepared statement. “A failure at this site would have devastating impacts on Michigan and Canada, who both rely on the Great Lakes for drinking water, tourism, and commerce.”
The lawmaker said he has already discussed the matter with of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Canadian officials, and OPG management, “to no avail. My amendment is yet another escalation of my efforts to highlight to Canada the urgency and gravity of this issue.”
Lawmakers on the U.S. side of the border have proposed intervention by the bilateral International Joint Commission, established in 1909 to resolve disputes between the two nations over shared waterways, as a means of scuttling the waste repository. The Obama administration State Department said last year it would not pursue such intervention.
“Canada and the United States created entities like the IJC to resolve binational water disputes and protect our shared waters,” Mitchell said. “Though limited in scope, passage of my amendment demonstrates that my colleagues and I in the United States Congress are willing to escalate our efforts to prevent this unacceptable threat to the Great Lakes.”
The House appropriations measure, is now awaiting action in the Senate. Fiscal 2018 begins on Oct. 1, but the federal government will be funded through a continuing resolution through Dec. 8.
Ontario Power Generation selected the site in Kincardine in 2005. The utility says it can store the waste – including material such as contaminated gloves, protective equipment, and reactor parts – deep within bedrock that would effectively permanently prevent the escape of long-lived radioactive contaminants into the environment, including Lake Huron. The safety of the site has been demonstrated by an extended list of expert bodies, OPG says, a statement that has not proven persuasive to its critics.
OPG now is waiting on approval from the Canadian government, which has repeatedly requested more information on the site, most recently in August.
According to the watchdog group Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump, 227 resolutions have been passed in opposition to the dump site by various municipalities and government bodies in both the U.S. and Canada. About 35 million people rely on the Great Lakes for drinking water and all the lakes are connected.
