TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A group of Michigan
legislators announced measures Monday that would increase pressure on
Canada not to let a power company bury waste from nuclear plants less
than a mile from Lake Huron.
Included in the legislative package
to be introduced this week are resolutions seeking intervention by the
International Joint Commission, which advises both nations on issues
involving the Great Lakes and other boundary waters, and the Great Lakes
Commission, an agency representing the eight states and two Canadian
provinces within the watershed.
Neither could veto the plan by
Ontario Power Generation to entomb radioactive waste in rock chambers
2,230 feet below the earth’s surface near Kincardine, Ontario — unless
both federal governments ask the IJC for a binding opinion. Otherwise,
Canada has the final say. But the two commissions could turn up the
political heat.
"We have to throw everything we can in the path of
this effort," said state Sen. Phil Pavlov of St. Clair Township, the
chief sponsor.
He and four other Republicans from districts near
Lake Huron also are offering bills to toughen Michigan’s prohibition of
permanent nuclear waste disposal in the state by including "Class C"
waste — the most potent form of low-level radioactive material — in the
ban. Low-level waste consists of contaminated clothing, floor sweepings,
mops and other items, as opposed to highly radioactive spent fuel rods.
Another
bill would establish an advisory board to examine any potential effects
of the proposed Ontario facility from the standpoints of public health,
natural resources, archaeology and history.
Several members of
Michigan’s congressional delegation, including Democratic Sens. Carl
Levin and Debbie Stabenow, have asked the Obama administration for help
in blocking the storage proposal.
The facility would be for low-level waste and "intermediate waste," or discarded parts from the
reactor core.
Messages
seeking comment were left with a spokesman for Ontario Power
Generation, a publicly owned company that produces one-fourth of the
electricity generated in Canada’s most heavily populated province. The
company has said previously that extensive study shows the underground
storage plan is sound. It says there is virtually no chance that
radioactivity will find its way to the lake — something critics dispute.
A
review panel conducted public hearings last fall and says it will
schedule others to examine new information from the company before
making a recommendation to the Canadian government.
Andy
Buchsbaum, director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes
office, endorsed Pavlov’s measures and said burying nuclear waste so
close to Lake Huron was "a shockingly bad idea."