Test air quality impact of gasification plant: Andrea Horwath

Andrea Horwath is calling on the province to do a full environmental assessment before it allows a gasification plant on the city’s waterfront.

The NDP leader and Hamilton Centre MPP said Thursday that the Environment Minister should commit to an assessment before allowing the waste-to-energy plant.

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The proposed plant is untried technology, she said, and no one knows what it will do to Hamilton’s air quality.

"The air in Hamilton is already overburdened," she said in a news release Thursday.

"People deserve to know what this plant could mean for the air they breathe."

U.S.-based Leveraged Green Technologies (LGT) has applied to build the plant on Pier 15. 

LGT proposes a 20-year lease for the plant on Hamilton Port Authority lands. It would create 30 to 50 jobs, the company estimates.

The project requires numerous federal and provincial approvals, but LGT still hasn’t acknowledged that it requires zoning approval from the city.

Environment Minister Glen Murray told Horwath there would "of course" be an environmental assessment.

"You could not open this plant without an environment assessment," he said, in the legislature.

The source of the waste that will be turned into energy has been an issue for city council. LGT says it will use waste from the harbour area, but some councillors worry that there’s no guarantee of that.

Horwath wrote to Murray citing information from the global watchdog group Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, which shows similar plants have release dioxins and furans, mercury and other emissions in the past.