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I 6 The Canadian Statesman. Bowmanville, October 18,1989 Efc Canadian cn Durham Region's Great Family Journal Established 135 years ago in 1854 © Also Incorporating I « The Bowmanville News U tX The Newcastle Independent The Orono News Second Class mail registration number 1561 Produced weekly by James Publishing Company Limited 62 King Street West, Bowmanville, Ontario L1C3K9 416-623-3303 Fax 416-623-6161 John M. James Editor - Publisher Richard A. James Associate Publisher Peter Parrott Associate Editor Geo. P. Morris Brian Purdy Donald Bishop Business Mgr. Advertising Mgr. Plant Mgr. All layouts and composition of advertisements produced by the employees ol James Publishing Company Limited are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced without the permission of the publisher. 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Tiny Trains Will Travel Miles at Model Railroad Show Editorial Comment Red Tape Stalls Health Study One of the frustrating things about dealing with government is the fact that it seems there is always one more hurdle to leap. It appears as though there is always always one other committee or agency or government body which must produce yet another stamp of approval before an idea can take flight. And the speed with which governments governments of various levels act seems, at times, to be inversely related to the worthiness of the project. ' Build an expressway through a neighbourhood and you'd be surprised how fast the doors fly open and the approvals approvals are rubber-stamped. On the other hand, a project such a home for orphans might suffer through decades of red tape. All right. Perhaps this viewpoint is just a tad cynical. But consider the case of the Darlington Darlington baseline health study. Here is "a perfect example of a worthwhile project project which has gained mass approval at the municipal level, only to be thwarted by a higher level of government. government. Now, you don't have to be a card- carrying, flag-waving anti-nuclear radical radical to favor a baseline health study for the community surrounding the Darlington Generating Station. Even if you're a proponent of nuclear nuclear power, you might very well be in favor favor of such a study because you know that it will merely confirm your convictions convictions that there is no danger to worry about. Indeed, if nuclear power is- all that it's cracked up to be, then there is nothing wrong with a health study to prove that very point. : Naturally, the anti-nuclear camp wants the study because it believes that there are serious dangers posed by nuclear power and that such dangers dangers have never been examined by an impartial and detailed study. The community surrounding Darlington Darlington represents a unique opportunity opportunity for such an investigation because of the fact that Darlington is not yet operating operating but will begin producing power ,in a matter of months. We, therefore, have a unique opportunity opportunity here. If we act quickly, it would !be possible to take a statistical "snap- 'shot" of the general health of the population population around Darlington before it begins begins to operate on a day-to-day basis. This 'baseline" information could then be used as a measurement for future health studies. In other words, we have an opportunity to conduct some 'before and after" sort of research. This is something which, to our knowledge, knowledge, hasn't been done at other nuclear nuclear power projects because no one in the past has been farsighted enough to do so. Anyhow, the case for a Darlington baseline health study made sense. The local Town of Newcastle Council Council supported the concept as did the Durham Region. Just for good measure, measure, the baseline study received the support of Whitby town council, Scu- gog Township council and the Association Association of Municipalities of Ontario. That latter group is an umbrella organization organization speaking for virtually all municipalities municipalities in Ontario. The proponents of the study might have thought that with this much support support from the grass-roots level of government government there would be a good chance that such a study would occur. But don't forget that law of politics which states that there is always one other set of approvals which must be received. That law has worked against the baseline study. The undertaking had to have approval approval from the provincial government if the costs of the study were to be borne by senior levels of government rather than by .the individual municipalities. municipalities. • The provincial government said "No". The health minister responsible for that statement has apparently given ho good reason against the study. The best that she could offer was what sounds to us like general political bafflegab. bafflegab. It seems that there's already a general study under way for measuring measuring the health of residents across the province and this is supposed to help determine the health status of all of Ontario, according to the health minis- How such a general, broad-brush study could take the place of a specific *#3E; ILL"" local study is a mystery which the minister has not adequately explained. explained. Without a health study of the Darlington Darlington community before the nuclear power station is operating, future assessments assessments of community health will be largely guesswork. Those who believe nuclear power is benign will read future future health statistics one way and those who say nuclear power is harmful harmful will offer a different interpretation. But theTe will be no objective data because because nobody will be able to go back to the year in which Darlington started and say: "Here are the health statistics statistics before Darlington got under way and the operation of Darlington has left residents' health in a better or worse state than it was in the past" Naturally, such a study will be expensive. expensive. It will cost several million dollars, according to estimates we've heard. And while nobody likes to,.dis- miss a couple of million dollars as small change, we would quickly point out that it's only a fragment of a percentage percentage point of the total cost of Darlington. Darlington. Ontario Hydro has not scrimped or cut comers in building Darlington. And cutting comers on a community health study to monitor the effects of Darlington makes about as much sense as trying to cut corners when you buy a parachute. The baseline health study is valid. It's so important that we cannot believe believe that the provincial government must have the last word on this topic. Perhaps the municipalities which support the baseline study should go so far as to block the start-up of Darlington Darlington until a study has been guaranteed. guaranteed. Maybe local and regional government government should foot the bill itself if a study is all that important. Maybe there should be a community fundraising fundraising campaign to pay the fees. Maybe Ontario Hydro should pay for the study alone or perhaps the federal federal levels of government ought to do so. One way or another, the baseline health study is needed. And, although any dealings with § ovemment include detours and road- locks there is one good thing about lobbying the government. When one avenue closes, it's always possible to achieve the same objective through another means. Clearly, the battle for a Darlington baseline health study is not over yet. On Same Team For many years, boards of education and town councils have lived parallel but separate lives. School boards didn't communicate extensively with town councils unless there was some kind of major crisis and, the same held true for boards of education. . To some extent, this is a good idea. The role of the educator and the role of the municipal administrator are separate separate and are controlled by entirely different pieces of legislation. At the political level, councillors and trustees deal with separate issues and are elected to do different jobs. Municipal politicians and school board trustees have generally respected each other's roles and not strayed across the boundaries. However, there are some ways in which (at the political level) the roles of a councillor and the roles of a trustee trustee are similar. For one thing, both groups rely extensively extensively on provincial funding in order order to do the things that they feel are best for their communities. Both groups are sometimes frustrated by the fact that their efforts seem blocked by the senior levels of government. One of the disturbing trends reported reported by both agencies in the past has been the tendency for the senior levels of government to place more of the tax burden on local property owners rather rather than on the property owners of Ontario Ontario as a group. This is a particularly regressive form of taxation because it does not allow communities of more modest means to share in the revenues revenues available to large Metropolitan centres. By working together, school trustees trustees and town councillors can ensure that provincial funds are equitably distributed. >**• i ,1 v All Aboard! For the Soper Valley third annual Model Model Railroad Show on Saturday, October 21, at the Bowmanville High School. There will _ be 10,500 square feet of show space with 15 operating exhibits and 56 different sales tables loaded with new and used models. Equipment will be set up in three gymnasiums gymnasiums at B.H.S. President of the Soper Valley Railroad Railroad Club, Garry Jeffery, says: "It's the largest show outside the Toronto Area." Next year they are considering considering having a two-day show. Most model groups, in cluding Z, N, HO, 0 and G scales, will be represented. There may also be a live steam demonstration." The Soper Valley Railroad Club has 12 members at present and they meet every Tuesday at the Visual Arts Centre on Simpson Avenue. Pictured above is part of the very realistic display that the club has erected. The tracks run through miniature cities, around mountains, through tunnels and over bridges. For information on the club and the show, call Gary Jeffery at 623-7968 or Ron Radcliffe at 623-6946. Writer Sees Problems with Old Arena Plan The recent article, concerning concerning the old arena project, project, leads one to believe that solid reasoning was used in the position which our town administration advocated advocated to council. I refer to the sentence "...Municipally- owned property would be located located in the middle of the development." The tendering proposal that was accepted by the town; originally submitted by Maxine Corporation, and then transferred to Sandbu- ry Building Corp., before tendering openings, was ibr all of the land. The confidential report which circumvented input from the planning boardj compiled by Mr. Kosteff, recommended recommended a portion of the land be repurchased after a municipal building was erected. This building was to be approximately 3/4 the size of our present library and used for that purpose,, The report then recommends recommends how council would; enter into a 25 year lease buyback arrangement from! the developer. This tidy arrangement, would ensure that Bowman-; ville residents pay an added' tax bill, over that period, of pen approximately $100,000.00 per year. It is a small wonder our taxation rate is on a continu^ al climb when council em dorses arrangements such as this. Jack Locke Litovchik Industries Inc. ■ Many people have asked me why someone like myself myself who appears to be independent independent still lives at home. (Outlook readers can cite proof of that independence independence by mentioning my car and chequebook.) Whitby isn't that far from Bowmanville but if I lived here, I know, I would be spared the 401 experience experience twice daily and all the headaches that come when you don't live in the area you work in. But aside from the work- related benefits, I've been told on numerous occasions occasions how great it is to have your own place. Friends who currently live on their own tell me how wonderful it is to be able to talk on the phone when they want to without without the worry of another member of their family picking up a different receiver receiver in the midst of a conversation. They are able to watch whatever they want to on television knowing that their Sunday afternoons are football free. (When you live with a sport- addicted brother and father father your television weekends weekends are NEVER football free.) And, they often tell me, no one worries about their whereabouts when they are late for dinner. I admit that these are all great benefits to living on one's own. The question you must be asking is why don't I move out? It isn't because Fm scared to (as some people may think.) I'm not afraid of trying to adjust to an empty apartment and not having someone waiting for me to ask "How was your day?" The reason I _ haven't moved out yet isn't because because I don't want to take on the financial responsibility responsibility of looking after myself. myself. And, as one friend suggested, suggested, the reason I '•> *> ji* */ i * • • ■ 1 C.W. Lundy, Clerk Region of Durham P.O. Box 623 Whitby, Ontario LIN 6A3. RE: File No 89-097/D Laidlaw - Forcemain Application Application - Graham Creek Mr. Lundy: I wish my comments to be forwarded to Dr. Michael, Planning Dept., but would also like to address the members of Regional Council Council regarding the above- noted issue. Today, it was announced by a joint panel of scientists, environmentalists, health Ministers, Ministers of the Environment, etc. that the Great Lakes can take no more. Even more frightening, frightening, is that any efforts to date to clean up the Great Lakes are thus far futile, as has been proven with scientific scientific data which states that not only fish and fowl are suffering the adverse affects, affects, but so too, are our children. children. Studies show that the accumulation of toxic substances substances is increasing birth defects, the incidence of tu- haven't moved out on my own isn't because I have too much stuff in my bedroom bedroom that I don't want to move. The one reason I still live in my parents' house is because I can't cook. If I ever did take the plunge and get my own place, I'd either be a frequent frequent customer at fast food outlets or I'd starve. Once I had the experience experience of my own place. I mors, embryo abnormalities, etc. in wildlife, and that "the same contaminants are found both in animal and human tissue, and the parallels parallels are disturbing". What is the connection? It's simple. Already, as a society, society, we are literally flushing flushing into Lake Ontario toxic substances - household cleaners, chemicals, pesticides, pesticides, herbicides, etc. Many of these kinds of things find their way to local garbage dumps, despite the fact that they should not. Laidlaw has applied to utilize the Graham Creek Sewage Treatment Plant for treatment treatment of its potentially-toxic leachate. Today's announcement announcement is more than a warning warning - it's a reality! There is no way whatsoever that Laidlaw's proposal should be considered. We have to stop using Lake Ontario as a dilution dilution pond. It doesn't work. This proposal is fraught with difficulties as an envi- ronmentally-viable solution and with the information put forth today, it is clear that dumping Laidlaw's lea- babysat my aunt's house for a weekend and pretended pretended I was on my own. My first night there I tried to cook a cheeseburger cheeseburger for my dinner. During the experience I filled the kitchen with smoke, burnt the burger, and, when I bit into it, the inside inside was raw. A few months, ago my mother went away for a weekend and left me in charge of feeding my dad and brother. chate into Lake Ontario is not only unacceptable, but morally wrong. In addition, this application application proposes to handle capacity capacity both for Laidlaw's Infill Infill and Main Expansion: neither of which has been approval from the Newcastle, the Region Region of Durham, or the Ministry Ministry of Environment (Ontario), (Ontario), and neither of which has been granted zoning or by-law amendments. Are we putting the cart before the donkey? Aren't a great deal . of taxpayers dollars being spent to give Laidlaw an 'in' by their attempts to sneak in through the back door? There is something very wrong with the entire system system when a proponent can monopolize a community's time, money and energy. I submit that this application should be dealt with only after after the application for expansion expansion of the dump has been dealt with. Until such time, this application has no place on the table. Finally, regarding the Region's Region's Waste Management granted ap Town of i The pork chops I cooked were half raw, the potatoes potatoes burnt and the beans had to be scraped from the bottom of the pot. My mom went away again this past weekend and she cooked the day's fare before she left so I only had to heat it through. Still, she left explicit explicit instructions on how hot to cook the food. I don't know why I can't cook. Perhaps it's some recently released. It is clear that the Region is seriously considering the Laidlaw garbage dump for handling its waste. I would like to remind the members of the Regional Council that this site is an environmentally environmentally unsound site. The current current dump is a thirty-year old dump which has all but reached capacity, and which, we believe, had it undergone environmental assessment at its inception, would never have been approved as a garbage dump. Not only do the residents of the Town of Newcastle oppose this dump for a variety of good reasons, so , too, has local Council supported said opposition. Please respect our wishes. I seem to recall at the Open Houses held over the past year by Laidlaw that there were no plans for disposal disposal of the leachate. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, correctly, Laidlaw representatives representatives boasted that there should be no difficulty with leachate, that it would be adequately handled with genetic deficiency that' halts my progress at; cookery every time. Whatever it is, I can't; cook. And the way I see it, because of this inability of mine, I'll be calling home "home" for a long time in the future. I like food too much to give it up and, I admit, I like very much hearing some voice say: "How was your day?" ■ treatment ponds, etc. One individual even stated that, if, over the course of time, 1 any leachate was detected beyond the treatment bar-, tiers, that it would a matter of. concern; however, because, the dump would be a massive massive mountain of dirt and garbage, there would probably probably be little recourse. Ap- relatively i tory, there has been little experience experience in this area. What I am worried about now is that if there is, indeed, à problem with leachate, then the waste which has been dumped over the past thirty years, with no regulations, nor record of what is in there, has a great chance of being very toxic. Do we want to put this into the Lake which provides drinking water water not only to area residents, residents, but several million other Canàdians and Americans? Americans? I think not. Thank you for your consideration. consideration. ! (Mrs.) Helen MacDonald 1$.■ \> Community in B.C. Marks 7 5th Birthday Downtown Port Perry Busily Prepares for Hallowe 9 en On Sunday afternoon. Port Perry's main street was an exciting and busy place, with most of the stores open and decorated tor the upcoming Hallowe'en season. season. Our cameraman couldn't resist taking a photo of The Settlement House that advertises its unique wares quite often in this newspaper. All along the backroads route to Port Perry, the fall colors were at their most brilliant peak and many area citizens were enjoying it all, Dear Sir: On March 6th, 1990 the City of Prince George, British British Columbia's northern capital, capital, will celebrate its 75th birthday. As a thriving, vibrant city with a population in excess of 68,000, it has much to offer. offer. The area surrounding the city offers the best anywhere anywhere in fishing, hiking, camping and sightseeing. Prince George itself offers a fine selection of-accommoda- tions; much to see with a museum, art gallery and summer theatre; parks scattered scattered throughout the city where you can take a break while your children burn off some excess energy. Best of all is the welcome the people of Prince George will give you. Warm, friendly friendly and helpful they will have you feeling at home in no time. Although there will be celebration activities going on for much of 1990, this is four invitation to come, cele- jrate with us during homecoming homecoming week, August 3rd to August 9th, 1990. If you have relatives or friends in Prince George you haven't seen for a long time, visit them during homecoming homecoming week. If you have often thought of visiting the west but nov- l er have, make 1990 the year you visit Prince George and sample our brand of hospitality. hospitality. An information package on activities planned for homecoming week, as well as the rest of the year, can be obtained by writing. 75 AND ON THE GO, City of Prince George, 1100 Patricia Blvd., Prince George, B.C., V2L 3V9. See you in 1990. City of Prince George. John Backhouse. Mayor; In Editor's Mail Dear Sir: Now that the frost has touched the pumpkin, it's time to think of Spring and Heritage Week once more. Heritage '90 is having a Planning Meeting on Wednesday, October 25 at 7:30 p.m. All are welcome. ■ We are looking for any suggestions, and all the help, we can get, to make our Her-, itage '90 Festival a really memorable week. , So, lot your Community Spirit got the Upper Hand and attend the Planning; Meeting in Court Room #2 of the Fire Hall (Church/ Division) "BE A PART OF IT' Fleurette Simmonds.