Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 13, 1979, Winnipeg, Manitoba City incinerator closing favored by committee Winnipeg free press tuesday february 13, 1979 City news by Ingeborg Boyens Winnipeg s civic works and operations committee voted monday to close the City incinerator april 30, despite a warning from one Council Lor that the move was As lethal As a time should Council approve the com Mittee s recommendation the City would treat Low level radioactive waste now incinerated before dump ing it in the red River and Bury garbage now incinerated in Landfill Sites. Coun. Alf Skowron Wood blasted City councillors and administrators for considering a disposal method that could prove to be harmful in the future. Burying Hospital wastes could spread Dis ease and land filling dead animals could produce methane Gas As it has in the St. Boniface Industrial Park the councillor said. Let s protect the future said Skowron urging fellow councillors not to approve the closing of the incinerator. However City administrators said monday that closing the incinerator would have Little Impact As most of Winnipeg s garbage even that which is hazardous is buried in one of the City s three Landfill Sites. About tons of the City s ton annual garbage output is now incinerated. Closing the incinerator would dump another tons of garbage on City Landfill Sites although tons is now incinerated the burning produces tons of residue which is sub sequently buried in Landfill operations director Rod Mcrae said. A civic report released last year stated about 50 per cent of Hazard Ous wastes produced by hospitals laboratories universities printers and Oil electrical and chemical firms Are burned at the City incinerator. We will be doing everything we have done in the past except adding a Little More to said com Mittee chairman Gary Filmon urging councillors to approve the closure. The City s Maude Street incinerator is currently spewing Fly Ash and Carbon dioxide into the air in direct contravention of Manitoba clean environment commission regulations. Officials estimated monday it would Cost the City More than million to bring the Plant up to air pollution standards. Meanwhile closing the incinerator would save the City about 000 annually. City departments prepared contingency plans last year to Landfill dead animals and Hospital wastes and store toxic chemicals and pesticides after the incinerator was closed. However the City s original plan to Send Low level radioactive wastes with used Oil to a Lime Kiln at Faulkner man., about 180 Kilometres from Winnipeg fell through last week when Faulkner area Council rejected the disposal of radioactive wastes in their Community. Under the current proposal radioactive wastes Are to be treated at the North end water pollution control Centre and eventually ejected into the red River. Skowron criticized City administrators for not having brought Forward More responsible propos als to Deal with the City s danger Ous garbage. You be been talking about this phase out for four Skowron said. City administrators discounted Skowron s concerns saying the radioactive wastes can be safely treated in the North end water pol Lution Centre. There is absolutely Zero Dan works and operations com missioner Bill Finnbogason said. However when Skowron asked the commissioner if he would stake his reputation that the disposal method would be harmless Finnbogason said the recommendations were made according to the Best information Mcrae admitted that the closure of the incinerator will certainly have an effect on Landfill the works and operations depart ment has been considering the construction of a smaller incinerator to dispose of just hazardous wastes Mcrae said. Mayor Robert Steen has already appealed to senior Levels of govern ment for financial help in construct ing the special incinerator. Coun. Bob Bockstael said it would make More sense to see the depart ment s recommendations for the new incinerator before deciding to close the Maude Street Plant. The administration seems to want to close it april 30 because it is conveniently timed with the Union contract of the incinerator s pres ent 28 employees said Bockstan while committee members agreed to close the incinerator they called for a report on the feasibility of constructing a smaller facility. Hydro does t know what to do with pcs Winnipeg Hydro is storing highly toxic and virtually indestructible to a chlorinated biphenyl a civic committee was told monday. Winnipeg civic works and operations committee councillors were told that the Utility is storing Undis closed amounts of the chemical com Pound which poses environmental and health hazards due to its longevity and resistance to decomposition. The chemical is used As a liquid coolant in electrical heat Transfer equipment. Civic waterworks and waste disposal director Sandi Penman said neither Winnipeg or Manitoba Hydro is still using pcs in its transformers or capacity actors. However Winnipeg Hydro is Stor ing the compound because it does t know what else to do with it. Manitoba Hydro May have the same Penman said. About one year ago Canadian pcs were shipped to the . How Ever a recent ban forced industries to keep the compound in storage. No method of disposal other than storage is presently known said Penman. Penman said he could not establish How much of the chemical is being stored or where it is being kept. Committee chairman Gary Filmon said carte electric Ltd. At 1995 Logan Avenue was also using pcs. The committee called for a report on what Winnipeg industries have quantities of the chemical and How they intend to dispose of them. The Federal government has prohibited the use of pcs in new products except in specified circumstances. 2nd class mall registration number 0286 it leaves you breathless photo by Dave Johnson firefighters Battle a Blaze at Garry Street Early today. No one was injured in the two alarm fire. Four firefighters injured damage in fires a two alarm fire Early today caused damage to a three Storey Brick building and contents at 323 to 329 Garry Street just North of Portage Avenue. Winnipeg fire chief Jack Coulter said at the scene it appeared the fire started under a stairway be tween the first and second floors. Fire officials told police the fire May have been caused by faulty wiring. The second and third floors of the building contain vacant apartment suites Coulter said. Damaged in the Blaze were the first floor offices of Michel s coif Fures the Garrick Barber shop and the Wai Law co. The first alarm came in just after Midnight and the second a few minutes later. The Oxford hotel 216 notre Dame Avenue suffered minor dam age but residents were allowed Back in about . Frank Lupkowski a hotel waiter said at the scene when police cleared the hotel people were coming downstairs half they were taken to the St. Charles hotel across the Street he said. In another fire monday night four City firefighters were treated in Hospital and released after being injured. The Blaze caused to a Furby Street Home. Fire department officials said one firefighter received bums to the neck another received Burns to his neck and face a third injured his left and another suffered cuts to his right hand while fighting the ire at 777 Furby Street. Police said Victor Clemente and family escaped from the 2 a Storey House when fire broke about . Monday. Cause of the the fire is under investigation by the provincial fire commissioner s office. Works committee backs City cleanup Winnipeg s civic works and operations committee has pitched in to clean up the City by unanimously voting monday to authorize to promote an anti litter Campaign. The funds which would be included in the City s 1979 current budget would be used to promote pitch in 79, a week Long Public awareness and Volunteer program aimed at improving Winnipeg s appearance. The Campaign with a theme of lend a hand to clean our is to take place May 7-12. During the cleanup Blitz children would remove litter from school and playgrounds cemeteries and neigh boyhood streets while various organizations would be encouraged to Par Owca report ready soon task Force reports on ways to in Rove the Winnipeg Owca s financial situation May be ready As Early As the end of april Owca president Joyce Christie said monday. Mrs. Christie said in an interview studies will look at such specifics As the swimming Pool gymnasium Caf Eteria residence rental permits for outside groups parking and prop erty tax Relief. The organization s accumulated deficit is Christie said the 1978 property tax Bill was the Winnipeg Branch is the Only one in Canada which has to pay property tax she added. Christie re elected president at the annual meeting monday said about 15 staff members and volunteers will form the Core task Force group but that Many people with expertise in specific areas will be asked to help. The organization s Board of directors announced Friday that four ser vices costing a year would be terminated and 11 full and part time staff members will lose their jobs. The services include Osborne House a Refuge for battered wives the widows consultation service a full time counsellor who worked with children referred by the childrens Aid society and a part time social action counsellor. The Owca a United Way Agency in t allowed to solicit funds for its projects but will accept them if offered Christie said. Tic Pate in special projects such As tidying Golf courses or shopping centres. Businesses would also been courage to sweep up around their premises. The City s sponsorship of pitch in 79 would be done in co operation with outdoors unlettered a non profit National litter control organization. Traffic signs approved Winnipeg s Community committees could gain More responsibility Over local traffic matters without a change to the City of Winnipeg act civic works and operations committee ruled monday. The committee which is the City s traffic authority agreed to approve All Community committee recommendations for traffic signs on residential streets after receiving a Stan Dard administrative report. The committee s decision was a Compromise Between councillors who said the local authorities should have final authority on what happens on Community streets and those who said final responsibility should re main with the works and operations committee. City solicitor Duncan Lennox cautioned committee councillors that the City should t have More than one traffic authority because of the Legal confusion it would cause. Our agendas Are just cluttered with this said coun. Harold Piercy referring to numerous re quests for local traffic signals. Yet the senior committee approves almost All of the recommendations of the Community committee said Piercy by sanctioning the decision of the Community committees the City would Only be formalizing what is Al ready done councillors agreed. Green tells Hydro quiz of Ottawa meddling Green by Cecil Rosner the Federal government meddled in Manitoba s affairs and was unreasonable throughout the nip administration s negotiations with the Northern flood committee former mines minister Sidney Green said monday. Green told the Tritschler inquiry that the Federal government financed the flood committee gave it authority to speak for treaty indians and set it up As virtually a parallel government to negotiate with Manitoba for compensation for Hydro flooding. It s tantamount to the govern ment of Manitoba finance the against the Federal said Green. The flood committee negotiated for More than three years on behalf of five Northern native communities. It eventually signed an agreement in 1977 with the conservative govern ment for compensation for acres flooded by the Churchill River diversion project. Green said he would have prefer red to negotiate with the Federal government directly rather than with the committee which he said was a paid to oppose the Manitoba government. The inquiry was told Green wrote a letter to then premiered Schreyer in Agio not 1q77 Colvino on am ment with the flood committee and should repudiate the entire pro Cess of bargaining with them. The government refused to sign the agreement because it called for Spe Cial Powers for arbitrators to decide compensation for flooding. Green also rejected charges that the government did t give the com Mittee or Northern communities in formation about the effects of the diversion project the former minister defended his government s handling of Hydro affairs but said All its decisions were in the context of the Federal Provin Cial Hydro agreement of 1966 which had already mapped out develop ment of the Nelson River. I Voiro Netrol rail ill Horbath Frt Nelson development makes Green said. Maybe we should have a commis Sion to examine it. Maybe i should be the Green said he was against holding Public hearings into the planned Lake Winnipeg project in 1970 and also opposed similar hearings in 1972 when Churchill River diversion came under scrutiny. He said he even fired water commission chair Man Cass Booy in 1972 for trying to organize Public policy debates on Hydro issues instead of simply hold ing informational hearings. "1 do not believe a Hydro program is decided by fudges or commission ers or in Green said. Rather the the decisions and then be responsible to Cabinet. Commissioner George Tritschler wanted Green to explain Why former Hydro chairman David Cass Beggs was paid daily expenses seven Days a week from the provincial mines department while he was chairman of Hydro. Green said this fee As Well As a weekly round trip fare to Ottawa was paid for six months As part of Cass Beggs original contract and was in addition to his regular salary As chairman. He said he could t remember specifically Why the expense Money came from his department adding that it was probably an administrative detail which would t have con ;