REGINA – Saskatchewan environment minister Berny Wiens has given approval to a controversial $10-million waste treatment facility planned for the Bienfait area.
But Wiens said the company building it, Plains Environmental Inc., will not be given the necessary permits until “the issues between the Rural Municipality of Coalfields and the proponents are resolved.”
Many residents of the town and agricultural community have opposed the waste incinerator and dump proposal. They called on Wiens to reject the project or force Plains Environmental to hold public hearings about it.
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After an extended review which brought more than 170 negative submissions, Wiens decided he was “satisfied that the questions that have been raised in each case are dealt with in the technical proposal.”
Plains Environmental president Bob Lawrence said he was happy with Wiens’ approval. He said the minister’s requirement that the RM accept the proposal before Plains can proceed is only an observation of how zoning laws work.
Coalfields reeve Garry Lafrentz was less happy about Wiens’ decision to approve the project and apparently leave the decision with local people.
No responsibility
“What they’ve done is dump the future direction of toxic waste into the hands of the RM of Coalfields, instead of taking a leadership role themselves,” said Lafrentz.
He said it was “bizarre” that Wiens would find concerns raised in all the submissions and in alternate environmental assessments to be adequately answered by Plains’ technical proposal.
The municipality has now asked its lawyer to analyze RM powers to approve or stop projects such as the waste facility. Lafrentz said Plains will have a lot of convincing to do if it wants to proceed with the project.
Lawrence would not say whether Plains thinks Coalfields has the legal right to stop the project. And he declined comment on what Plains will do now that it has environmental approval.