By Lindsey Cole The Oshawa Express
The Oshawa harbour is anything but washed up with numerous events taking place around the area that have left some scratching their heads.
While the dredging activity being conducted by the Oshawa Harbour Commission near Gifford Hill previously raised eyebrows from the Friends of Second Marsh, now two environmental applications by major industries have others worried about the harbour’s future.
FarmTech Energy Corporation has reapplied for a new ‘Certificate of Approval,’ for air and noise from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.
This comes after FarmTech dropped their application in the fall stating it needed to be revamped.
According to the application on the Environmental Registry, the proposal includes all emission sources from the ethanol fuel manufacturing and associated processes.
This includes four baghouses, two flares, two scrubbers, one thermal oxidizer, one cooling tower, one emergency fire water pump, seven storage tanks, five process vented tanks, one wet cake pad and other miscellaneous emissions.
The emissions include, ‘particulate matter, products of combustion such as carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds such as ethanol, acetaldehyde, acrolein and benzene, odour and noise,’ the registry explains.
While nothing can go forward with the plant until the assessment is approved by the province, the city also has a say as a portion of the land would have to be rezoned and approved by council.
However, there have been no formal discussions at council as to the future of an ethanol plant in Oshawa. It was also left out of a staff report on harbour land negotiations between Transport Canada and the city. This report was presented to councillors at a recent in-camera meeting.
“I’m still not convinced that ethanol is a good choice,” says Mayor John Gray.
“We’ll let everyone make their own decision. At the end of the day I’d hope they would have to adhere to provincial guidelines.”
For harbour activist Larry Ladd the idea that the ethanol plant could be moving forward is not encouraging.
“The city of Oshawa didn’t appear to deal with it in their negotiations,” he says, adding putting an ethanol plant next to the Second Marsh is simply a ‘bad planning proposal.’
Those at the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper charity echo his sentiments.
“FarmTech also needs approval from the federal government, and the federal ‘environmental assessment’ process is still underway. We understand that a municipal zoning approval is also required and that process is on hold; Waterkeeper objected to FarmTech's proposal at that hearing about two years ago,” says Mark Mattson, waterkeeper and president of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper.
The proposal has been posted for a 45-day public review and was released on Dec. 23. Those wishing to submit comments have until Feb. 6 and can do so on the Environmental Registry under the ‘contact’ portion of the application.
These comments will be considered as part of the decision making process. FarmTech could not be reached for comment as of The Oshawa Express’ deadline.
But that isn’t all that is happening down at the waterfront. What’s more, the Friends of Second Marsh have previously expressed their concern about a berm near Gifford Hill that resembles site plans for the ethanol plant.