Lawyers for Citizens Against Burning of Tires (CABOT) will be in Nova Scotia Supreme Court today asking the court to set aside a 2017 decision to allow tire burning in Nova Scotia. They’ll ask for the decision to be remitted to Environment Minister Iain Rankin for reconsideration.
The request stems from belief that Minister Rankin did not consider the impact of mid-kiln injection of whole tires, amongst other factors, when making his decision. Lawyers for Cabot argue that this lack of consideration makes the 2017 decision incomplete.
CABOT applied for the judicial review after the Nova Scotia Government approved an environmental assessment in July 2017 to allow the Lafarge cement plant in Brookfield to burn up to 6,000 tonnes of tires, roughly 600,000 tires per year.
A sworn affidavit by Dr. Douglass Hallett released in late 2017 shows that temperatures in the middle of the kiln are lower, resulting in incomplete combustion and potential release of pollutants into the surrounding environment and communities.
“It is our view that Nova Scotia Environment and the Government of Nova Scotia lacked the internal expertise to assess the risks of this project in particular the emissions from the burning of multiple fuels including whole tires in a 50-year-old kiln,” says Mark Butler, Policy Director, Ecology Action Centre (EAC), “We hope the Court will order the NS Government to review the decision.”
This morning, CABOT lawyers will ask the court to send back Minister Rankin’s decision for a new review.
Residents of nearby Shortt’s Lake successfully opposed the burning of tires in 2007. Lydia Sorflaten, an applicant in the judicial review, has been one of many who have long raised concerns about the environmental and human health impacts of the plant, noting odours from the plant and deposition of material on their cars and homes.
“The mandate of the Department of the Environment is to protect our environment, to use the precautionary principle,” Sorflaten says, “Burning whole tires at the plant in Brookfield poses threats of serious and irreversible damage to our environment, our air, our water, our soil, and consequently our health. This project should not be allowed to go ahead.”
CABOT, EAC and other groups have been critical of the 50-year-old Brookfield plant’s pollution control measures citing the lack of a baghouse and continuous emissions monitoring system for volatile organic compounds and particulate matter.
“Whatever way you look at burning 20 tonnes of scrap whole tires, one per minute, in Lafarge’s old cement plant in Brookfield, it is wrong,” says Sorflaten.
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Dr. Doug Hallett’s affidavit: https://ecologyaction.ca/tire-burning-brookfield-cement-plant
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Source: Media Release
