What I'm trying to get my head around is whether a demonstrated track record is one of the criteria the Ministry of Environment uses to approve air emissions permits from industrial facilities.
At the September 1st Kamloops Council Meeting, while listening to many presentation on a proposed Aboriginal Cogeneration Corporation (ACC) operation, Councillor Marg Spina basically asked this question of Ministry of Environment Air Quality Expert Ralph Adams.
Ralph's response was interesting in that he said there are similar plants (that burn creosote soaked railway ties), even as close as Williams Lake. But then he said something that made me stop, rewind the tape, and listen once more. Ralph said:
"The bottom line is we are not going to get away from rejecting a permit just because no one else has done it - not gonna work".
As ACC technology uses a special propietary process that has not seemed to be significantly field-tested, this sounds a bit worrisome to me. Did I miss a piece here?
I'd like to ask Ralph for comment on this, and will post his / the Ministry's reply here.
Meanwhile, here is the "game tape":
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