Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 22, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free april Earth Day nuclear Energy is it Safe by Bohdan Gembarski nuclear plants Are fulfilling More of the Power demands in countries unable to meet Domestic Power needs because of a Lack of natural such for Are generating about 70 per cent of Frances electricity and almost 25 per cent of and the japanese Are determined to raise that output by building More but questions Over the safety of nuclear Energy remain divisive and difficult to the Ontario Liberal at one time firmly opposed to nuclear de recently passed a Resolution supporting construction of additional nuclear plants to keep apace with that provinces eve increasing demands for electrical Bob Public relations manager of the atomic Energy of Canada Laboratory in says the Ontario Liberal govern ments newfound support for nuclear Power As an alternative Energy source is not they the Ontario government have looked at Ontario Hydro Treyve looked at safety other and decided that nuclear should remain part of the Energy mix in that not to say its going to be the Only it never will nor should it in my but i feel its a viable Energy and it should be a part of our country and other countries Energy mix for Many years to Anne a spokesman for concerned citizens of is not she feels nuclear generated Power has not been proven to be Dixon says Coa fired Gas and hydroelectric projects have their own hazards All Energy sources pollute the environment to some both Dixon and Lindsay agree on this but Lindsay is sceptical about the i dont think you can say one is necessarily More destructive than another when you look at the local Community that has to Deal with the Gerry free press Lindsay look at consequences of chernobyl consequences of producing says when a family on the Nelson River in Northern Manitoba has to give up their that Hydro project clearly has had More of an Impact on them than a nuclear Power Plant in the South might but look at the consequences of the chernobyl Accident and How Many people it the which occurred at a nuclear Power station in the Ukraine four years ago this sent a radioactive Cloud across the Western soviet and around the official soviet estimates say 31 people died As a result of the and about 300 others reported radiation sickness attributable to the the potential effects Are absolutely says not just the effects on the Popula Tion that lives there now there Are genetic effects which happen to future generations because of the effects of radiation despite the chernobyl Dixon says the risks associated with nuclear Energy Are comparatively in our nuclear is one of the better Energy sources it Doest produce any acid and it Doest contribute to the greenhouse it produce Uncle a fuel if handled in can be quite the Quantity of the waste is relatively Small in terms of size and and we believe it can be handled such that it will not harm the Dixon says waste management has a High priority with which is now assessing the results of a 10year study into disposal the according to seems to indicate burying nuclear waste deep into the ground might be an acceptable Way to resolve that there is evidence in nature that perhaps the methods were looking at already the Ore deposits around uranium in Northern Saskatchewan have been in exis tence for one to two billion celebrate the Earth everyday at Green Earth the environment store recycled paper products biodegradable soaps cloth diapers natural personal care much More 726 Osome Street South 128alipton Street 4771638 7721404 bring in this and to either location and receive off any Purchase Over and As the season a free tree general scrap and car purchasing processing recycling of ferrous and nonferrous scrap buy scrap tin it cast aluminium catalytic and steel in almost any plastic sort drink scrap Metal Allainer sen ice please Call 2224221 Box to Arecia postal Manitoba r3c 25 Ujj ii a growing commitment to the future we know that Canadas forests Are not just our but our and our childrens so we dont just Cut Down we Plant them millions of them every we protect them from insects and and we tend them so we know there grow ing tall and our our heritage and our Price and the uranium has not leeches out and there is no evidence at the surface that an Ore body is Down radioactivity can be stored in without leeching out under natural Lindsay argues that instead of making electrical Power Genera Tion through nuclear methods More the focus should be shifted to Les hazardous sources of such As solar and wind those technologies lag far behind nuclear in terms of Power production efficiency and Cost and Lindsay feels More Money needs to be dedicated to renewable solar and wind Power have never been Given even a fraction of the kind of research funding that nuclear Power has had in this after the second world nuclear began to be seen As a proud Canad an what has happened because of that is that Money has been continually poured into that Industry at the expense of other Energy As Lindsay says More emphasis should be placed on Energy conservation especially in places such As whose Power needs Are rising Tom utilities analyst with Energy a Toronto based National environmental says that rather than consuming More Canada should learn to pay the full Price for the Energy it con Sumes and not rely on the most important step is hav ing honest prices and stopping the subsidies that go into Energy con right electricity is highly the economic Council of Canada says that if we took the subsidies off electricity in the would go up by co per in Adamss the Price escalation itself would encourage Large and Small Consumers alike into conserving and would reduce dependence on find ing new sources of if Canada was As effective wed be in a position to shut Down All the Coal and nuclear plants in the country and More than double the size of our Economy be fore we would have to build any new Hydraulic Adams Points out that Denmark economic growth is four times that of Cana diaper service Lor i lie Lor tic Comfort and Lic Alth of your Tor taif Ioil of lie Iron ii doing can also of convenient and gift Utill for baby unit older t Silivi Moinul 11 sunk Ivi i value of wetlands is being professor warns by Randal Millroy the value of Manitoba wet lands is being drained away says Tim i think weve got to Stop what were doing and says the University of Winnipeg Geo Graphy professor and frequent contributor to water commission we need a total assessment of whats going much of Manitoba wetlands has been lost to Hasty damaging the ecosystem and leaving us ill prepared for he although there Are no precise figures for the total loss across the past 100 years or Ball says its quite unchallengeable to say a significant amount has been to put it this Region was once considerably More although Lake Winnipeg is the 13thlargest Lake in the its Only the remnants of Lake Agassiz which is the largest Freshwater Lake that Ever exist As far As we says at the time of the first Europe an Central Manitoba was still extensively to the on the higher ground known As the second Prairie Lay the potholes and sloughs carved in the land by the receding these Are properly known As the settlers went on to farm the and in their Rush to do so wasted much of the leaving Little Protection against naturally cyclical when you run the water away that none of it soaks into the Ball it Doest replace ground it Doest soak into the so you end up by the end of the summer with far less moisture than you would have under natural Condi the he is a Ludi Crous where communities recoiling from the wasteful drainage practices of a and the drought of the previous now want water piped in because they Haven got its just absolutely water shortages Are Only one of the another is soil Ero it takes Between 80 to 100 years for an Inch of soil to form in this he yet the crucial layer of Mineral Rich Clay is easy to especially when the movement of water is accelerated by in a study of Lake for it was estimated that since Drain age was the time needed for a Raindrop falling on the escarpment to reach the River has been reduced to three Days from three you just cant keep that acceleration up without soil erosion becoming a massive the effect on wildlife is also Man Tobas wetlands have been Cru Cial to waterfowl in two As a nesting ground and As a rest changing global wind patterns have had some effect on but the problem has been exacerbated by and that has been aggravated by Farmers draining those lower water Levels and higher water temperatures also Spur the algae growth that creates Botu in recent the Oak Lake Region near has seen massive kill offs from this poisoning of to Birds at a Short Range planning Hast he with civic and provincial governments making Little attempt to Deal with the fact that both drought and flood Are cyclical we react one Way in dry another Way in wet if we just Stop and there Are wet periods and dry and if we plan for then it would make Ball assess situation blaming the banners for callously destroying the wetlands is he through the Farmers were squeezed by rising costs and dropping forcing them to increase their using More Chemi cals was one draining the most of which were More accessible As a consequence of the and digging Drain age ditches to keep that land dry even in the wet was the Ball has Long argued that the Best solution is to offer Farmers a financial incentive to preserve the wetlands on their the Way to do he is to set up a protective tax Matching the percentage of wet land preserved with a percentage tax if he has 20 per cent then take 20 per cent off the top of his income he sees this As an obligation we All should As a matter of the banners see them selves As stewards of the the thing is we want them to be but were not willing to pay for Why should the Fanner carry the Cost its a societal and that True about All environmental hazardous waste it corporation household hazardous waste collection depot As a Public the my wac is providing a collection Point for citizens to drop off hazardous wastes from their 747 Logan Winnipeg off Owen Street on the East Side of the Ward provincial lab saturdays from 9 to 4 household hazardous wastes include old waste aerosol pesticides and other chemicals found in your for More information regarding Fife household hazardous waste depot or other activities and please Contact tie Manitoba hazardous waste management corporation 226530 Century Street Manitoba r3hoy4 Telephone 9451844 or toll free 18007822474 in Manitoba pc Fate a Hazard is wastes it pm Ihui Soucy i in tit cup of is a commercial Crown corporation established to develop and sent by sits i of its mandate is to provide or the handling of regulated hazardous o tres treat met and consistent with High standards of Public safety and environmental ;