PAGE 4, WJEDNESDAY. APRIL 2,1ffl bWi-ITBY FREL PRESS I>ublisied es'ery Wediesday whitbyBILL MCOUAT 1 X F Z. F Y L rhx F X Fg Commufty Editor leJ.~. y/rm.a I 1~ ii SA and loographyhInc. F z V ui m' m mluplm lit, 668-611 IlVALERIE C0WEN W ~ J' I. ~ ~ X lil"il'iFreePrss Bidn, Advortlslng Manager Voic ettheCouty ownMicaelIanBuress Puishr -Mangin Edtor1:11 iIiIck Street Northî, Second Class Mail Voie o te C uny TwnMicaella Buges, ubishr -Maagig diI .0.Bo 206, Whitby, Ont Registraton No. 5351 The only Whitby newspaper indepcndeaîtl as med anud operated by Whitby resîdcîîts fur Whtby resudeîats Bae prepared at Decom hearing The Environmentai Assessment Board hearing into the Decom Medical Waste Systems proposai is flnally underway this week in the Whitby Coun- cili Chambers. To refresh everyone's memory, Decom wants, ta buiid a pathologicai waste tran- sfer station on Sunray St. In the Industriai park at Consumers Dr. and Hopkins St. If approved, the transfer station would handie up ta 50 tons a day of pathological, pharmaceuticai and institutionai wastes which wouid be transferred inside the station into vehicles for shipmnent ta disposai sites in Ceveland Ohio and Gatineau Quebec. The statIorjwvouId include a facility for washing and disinfecting the vehicies which oniy then would be parked out-of-doors on the site. There wou Id be no provision for the storage of waste at the site and ail transfers wouid be made directly from one truck ta another within the transfer station itseif. Last year Whitby counicil voted against the proposai and Decom cou ntered by taking the mat- ter ta the Environmentai Assessment Board which has the authority ta overrule the town's decision. Letters to. EditorI Re: Application by Decom Mecical Waste Systems Imc. for a cer- tificate of approval for a new Pathoogical Waste Transfer Station to be located in the Town of Whitby. To The Editor: I arn a homeowner and business owner in the Town of Whitby and arn greatly concerned about the negative ef- fect the presence of a Pathological Waste Transfer station will have on the environ- ment and community. My concerna include, but are not limited to, the certainty of an ac- cident, (50 tons per day being transported) either during transpor- tation, handling or storage. In the event of an ac- cident, spili or fumble, the proposed facility being located on a natural drainage area running to Corbett Creek, the Water Filtration Plant and Lake Ontario will raise concerna of waler purity. Also possible is air- borne contamination such as viruses, infec- tious ciseases and noxious odours. Consider poor on and off site personel and equxpment hygiene and inadequate emergency akifs of owners, operators and em- pioyees resulting in un- necessary hazards. In the above situations, the reper- cussions are severe enough, but what if a dog, cat, bird, rodent or insect contacted or con- sumed some unknown pathological, anatomi- cal, or infected waste, the potentiai viruses left * to incubate and spread communicable diseases among the wiidllfe * population to be passed on to area residents? The reaulting disaster may be comparable to the Black Piague 1 This is not the voice of hysteria, but of concern for this and any other considered community. The Decom proposai has been discussed with biologista, safety exper- ta, residents and business owners and the impending environmen- tai impacts are very real and quite possible. There are altér- natives and they must be implemented instead of considering Decomn's certificate of approvai on April 1. Sincerely, William Walsh. Whitby. Reader takes Knell to tas]k To The Editor: Michael Knell dlaims he is in favour of SDI research and states Il... SDI wiii probabiy work." He goes on to say Il... just because we face total destruction is no reason for us to abandon our desire or capabiity to defend ourseives." He is assuming, like many others, that our chance of survival depends on continued developmnent of nuclear weapons. David Parnas is Lan- sdowne Professor of Computer Science at the University of Victoria, B.C. In May of 1985 he was asked by the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) to serve on the advisory panel. After the flrstmreetlng in June lie spent several' weeks Members of the generai public are enttled to make submissions to the board at this week's hearings and judging from the general public out- cry that ensued after Decom took their proposai ta the E.A.B., there wiii be more than a few people who show up to protest the proposai before the board. However, If you wish ta make a submisslon to the board this week - there wiii be a specil session in the Council Chambers this evening at 7:30 for those that can't attend during the day there are a few considerations you wouid be Weil advi sed ta keep i n m i d. To begin with, probabiy the single most impor- tant thing to keep in mind is that this hearing will be canducted very much like the proceedings In a court of iaw. Everyone wha appears before the board panel wiil be swornIn and anything they say wili be subject ta crass examinatian. In other wor- ds, make sure that you can substantiate any ciaims you make before the board because you can be sure that Decom's iawyer wiii quickly weed out any haif truths or exaggerations 1 n your working intensely on the probiem, and then sub- mitted to the SDIO his resignation along with eight papers expiaining the teclinical problems with the system. He is quoted here from an ar- ticle in Unitarian Universaliat World. "I could not convince myseif that it wouid be possible to buiid a system that we could trust or that it wouid be useful to build a system that we did not trust. I solicited commenta from others and found nobody who disagreed with my teclinical con- clusions. Instead, I heard people telling me that the program should be continued, flot because it would free us from the fear of nuclear weapons, but because the research money would advance the state of the art in aur field. It became clear that they (SDIO) saw their assigenment as finding ways to spend the money, not asking whether or, not the projeet was useful. I want the public to un- derstand." Dr. Parnas concludes, "that no trustworthy shield will resuit from the SDIO sponsored work.A.Iwant them to understand that technology offers no magic that will eiminate the fear of nuclear weapons. Resuts of the Nulear Winter research in- dicates there is no defense against nuclear weapons. Miiitary strategista admit there is no defense against terrorism. Dr. Anatol Rapoport's researchi in Game Theory (science of conflict) indicates that in the long run there is no ultimate strategy, no winning formula. Tranalated in- to. your resent dilem- ma, this iéanthat no testirnony. Such dlaims as appeared ln a fiyer that recentiy was maki ng the rounds to the etfect that Decom wiii be shipping 50 tons of human body parts into the station daiily wili be promptiy shown up for what they are, a gross manipulation of the facts. The E.A.B. panel Is here ta listen to tacts nat emotional distortions and ail remarks shouid be imited and directed to the matter at hand, nameiy, what kind of impact wiii the Decom proposai have on yau, your property or the communIty as a whaie. If you cannot backup your dlaims they wiii not be admissabie. Another point that should be considered Is brevity. Because the board wiii probabiy be hearing many submissians, it wouid be wise to limit your remarks to concerns that have not already been presented to the board. Presumabiy if the board listens ta an endiess stream oaf presentations in the same vein, that train of reasaning wiii necessariiy lose some of its impact and you wiii not have served your purpose. matter how sophisticated our weapons may ta, the Russians will shortiy possess the same, and if the Russians colapse economically before the U.S., there wil ta another threat to take lier place, and so on, ad infinitum (if we're lucky). The probiems of defense and security go much deeper than the Communist - Capitalist conflict, but because both superpowers are obsessed with power, they have missed oppor- tunities to crate tatter Unfortunateiy, there is some fleeting comfort in having an enemy to ta responaibie for al evil, it keepa us from the revelation of our own shadows, and yes there will ta peacenika who simply blame the Pen- tagon instead of the Kremlin. But peace ultimately dependa on whether the people awaken to their part in procurring this planet toward a desirable future. Sincerely, Janet Irene Vickers Whitby. 7-04-E OF ccltIG-V-P