Beyond Nuclear in Counterpunch: "After Flint, Don’t Let Them Nuke the Great Lakes Next!"
Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, has published an article at Counterpunch warning that the Flint, Michigan lead poisoning of drinking water for a town of 100,000 should serve as a cautionary tale for the proposed Canadian radioactive waste dump on the Lake Huron shore. Imagine if a drinking water catastrophe affecting 40 million people in eight U.S. states, two Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations were to unfold, if and when Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) Deep Geologic Repository (DGR) leaks radioactivity into the Great Lakes.
Shockingly but not too surprisingly, the same agencies that brought us the Flint drinking water catastrophe (Governor Rick Snyder's administration in Michigan, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), have also rubber-stamped OPG's DGR. But in light of Flint, it is clear Snyder, MDEQ, and EPA are, frighteningly, incapable of protecting clean, safe drinking water supplies. Snyder, MDEQ, and EPA's flippant sign offs on the DGR are obviously meaningless and unacceptable, in terms of protecting the Great Lakes, 21% of the world's surface fresh water, and 84% of North America's.
Opponents have fought the DGR for 15 long years. Canada's Environment Minister, Catherine McKenna, will decide by March 1st whether or not the DGR will be allowed to proceed to construction and operation.
Kevin's article concludes with the following:
What You Can Do to Help Save the Great Lakes!
Such an insane scheme must be stopped dead in its tracks. Please help nip the DUD in the bud! (DUD is an apt alternative for DGR, a phrase coined by David Martin of Greenpeace Canada, short for Deep Underground Dump.)
Americans, Canadians, and First Nations members are encouraged to email Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Justin.Trudeau@parl.gc.ca) and Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna Catherine.McKenna@parl.gc.ca, to urge them to reject OPG’s DGR by the March 1st decision deadline.
Readers are also encouraged to contact President Obama , to urge him to order Secretary of State John Kerry to activate the U.S.-Canadian International Joint Commission (IJC), to conduct a comprehensive review of the DGR’s risks to the Great Lakes.
Americans can also contact their two U.S. Senators, and U.S. Representative (get patched through to their offices via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121), and urge them to co-sponsor U.S. Senate and House legislation, the “Stop Nuclear Waste by Our Lakes Act,” (S. 2026 in the U.S. Senate, and H.R. 3483 in the U.S. House) introduced by U.S. Sens. Stabenow and Peters, and U.S. Rep. Kildee (Democrats from Michigan). The “Stop Nuclear Waste by Our Lakes Act” (S. 2026 and H.R. 3483) will invoke the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty, and mandate that the IJC undertake a comprehensive review of the DGR proposal.
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Could Michigan be the site of the next nuclear disaster?
Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear joins Thom Hartmann on "The Big Picture." If a new nuclear waste disposal plan goes forward -- the Flint water crisis could soon be the least of Michigan's worries. Isn't it time we abandoned nuclear power once and for all and embraced real clean energy that doesn't turn our cities into potential fallout zones? (See Kevin's Counterpunch article, "After Flint, Don't Let Them Nuke the Great Lakes Next!")