Dear Editor:

Minister of Environment, Mary Polak’s recent letter to the North Shore News contains factual error, outdated information and reliance on information from others rather than personal curiosity and investigation.

First, sludge IS being trucked to the Nicola Valley. She should come and have a look for herself.

Second, she says biosolids can only be applied to the land where there is a benefit, and not just as a means of disposal.  What kind of dream world is she living in?  There are at least two large operations in the Nicola Valley where the sludge is being disposed in large quantities, and a third one planned. The ministry simply does not know the volumes.

The precautionary principle to risk management is based upon a social responsibility to protect the public from exposure to harm when there is a plausible risk. Studies from Harvard and Cornell University point to many risks to human health.

In the past decade, many cases have emerged of the long-term effects on people and livestock. What evidence does the Minister have of the longitudinal effects of introducing sewage sludge with a huge range of unknown sources and quantities of potential contaminant into an ecosystem that includes important groundwater resources?

Biosolids may have been applied for a decade, but the same was said of other substances harmful/fatal in the past. Remember 2,4-D? Nitrates have already polluted water tables in Abbotsford. Heavy metals do not attenuate, but accumulate and leach into aquifers. Biosolids are poisoning our land and groundwater.

The Organic Matter Recycling Regulation does not protect us. If I want to construct a large building in Vancouver, I would need to post a notice and consult the neighbours, have a hearing, amend my plans, obtain a building permit, be inspected, have a final inspection and so on.

However, if I want to deposit human waste sludge, no advance notification to neighbours is required, no consultation, no permit, no checking of the site and the area by the ministry, no monitoring of the quantity of sludge being disposed, no monitoring of the toxicity levels, no responsibility for poisoning wells.

The ministry should learn from other countries and incinerate the waste.

Five incinerators around the province could handle the volume.

Technology exists for scrubbers to minimize air pollution. Take responsibility and invest in a proper solution to a problem that is not going to go away so long as people have digestive tracts and industry and hospitals have waste.

Libby Dybikowski

Merritt