Thorold incinerator plan officially burns out
By Bill Sawchuk, St. Catharines Standard
Tuesday, January 31, 2017 9:40:36 EST PM
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Residents of Thorold and Niagara can breathe easier.
A proposal for an incinerator that would burn garbage to create electricity has officially gone up in smoke.
Thorold council had already rescinded its support for the project. Tuesday, Niagara Region’s public works committee said it’s not behind it either.
“The point is moot anyway,” Welland Coun. Paul Grenier said. “The government has cancelled the energy-from-waste program. Even if they wanted to go forward with it, they would have nowhere to sell the electricity.”
Last year Niagara’s waste management steering committee began investigating the feasibility of a proposal for a $180-million energy-from-waste plant in Thorold, which would sell hydro power to the province’s energy grid. It would have been built on Allanport Road.
The proposal, however, met with considerable grass-roots opposition in Thorold, which came to a head at a public meeting in the summer.
Thorold council reversed course and rescinded its support in early September.
The idea effectively died at the end of September. That’s when the minister of energy announced that the province was suspending the Energy from Waste Standard Offer Program because the province won’t need any new generation capacity to meet demand over the next decade.
The vote at the Region’s public works committee was more symbolic than anything.
“There isn’t any money from the province for this,” Thorold Mayor Ted Luciani said. “They needed that money big time for this to work.
“The Region has rescinded its support as well. That’s what I requested. They are doing what we asked.
“The company had a good spiel, but we dug deeper into it, and there was a substantial outcry about it. We went a step further in Thorold and said energy from waste in the form of incineration isn’t a viable method for waste management.”
When the proposal was announced, the Thorold plant was touted as the first private sector energy-from-waste facility in Canada — one that would exceed the strictest emissions standards in the world.
Opponents countered by saying all incineration technologies produce toxic, airborne emissions. Particles that are too small to be trapped by filters are dumped back into the ecosystem. Grenier told the committee he wanted to correct the record.
The region never endorsed the plant.
“What we gave was permission for the proponent to apply for an eight-cent per kilowatt hour revenue stream so they could meet the eligibility requirements,” he said.
“There were a number of us at the time that got up and said, ‘Please do not misinterpret this as an endorsement of an EFW construction.’
“We told them there would by 100 different ways this will go off the rails before it gets done. Everyone has been chastising us for approving it — and we never did that.”
By Bill Sawchuk, St. Catharines Standard
Tuesday, January 31, 2017 9:40:36 EST PM
Bookmark and Share
Change text size for the story
Report an error
Residents of Thorold and Niagara can breathe easier.
A proposal for an incinerator that would burn garbage to create electricity has officially gone up in smoke.
Thorold council had already rescinded its support for the project. Tuesday, Niagara Region’s public works committee said it’s not behind it either.
“The point is moot anyway,” Welland Coun. Paul Grenier said. “The government has cancelled the energy-from-waste program. Even if they wanted to go forward with it, they would have nowhere to sell the electricity.”
Last year Niagara’s waste management steering committee began investigating the feasibility of a proposal for a $180-million energy-from-waste plant in Thorold, which would sell hydro power to the province’s energy grid. It would have been built on Allanport Road.
The proposal, however, met with considerable grass-roots opposition in Thorold, which came to a head at a public meeting in the summer.
Thorold council reversed course and rescinded its support in early September.
The idea effectively died at the end of September. That’s when the minister of energy announced that the province was suspending the Energy from Waste Standard Offer Program because the province won’t need any new generation capacity to meet demand over the next decade.
The vote at the Region’s public works committee was more symbolic than anything.
“There isn’t any money from the province for this,” Thorold Mayor Ted Luciani said. “They needed that money big time for this to work.
“The Region has rescinded its support as well. That’s what I requested. They are doing what we asked.
“The company had a good spiel, but we dug deeper into it, and there was a substantial outcry about it. We went a step further in Thorold and said energy from waste in the form of incineration isn’t a viable method for waste management.”
When the proposal was announced, the Thorold plant was touted as the first private sector energy-from-waste facility in Canada — one that would exceed the strictest emissions standards in the world.
Opponents countered by saying all incineration technologies produce toxic, airborne emissions. Particles that are too small to be trapped by filters are dumped back into the ecosystem. Grenier told the committee he wanted to correct the record.
The region never endorsed the plant.
“What we gave was permission for the proponent to apply for an eight-cent per kilowatt hour revenue stream so they could meet the eligibility requirements,” he said.
“There were a number of us at the time that got up and said, ‘Please do not misinterpret this as an endorsement of an EFW construction.’
“We told them there would by 100 different ways this will go off the rails before it gets done. Everyone has been chastising us for approving it — and we never did that.”
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