Warning: this is no Cinderella Story, and it’s very real.
This is about harm-reduction, while we beg Councillors in Durham Region – who approve of this – for environmental assessments and reports to ensure cancer-causing toxins are being managed properly, now and in the future.
Six years ago, an incinerator was built in the pristine countryside of Clarington. It is currently burning 140,000 tonnes of trash hauled to that location from all over York Region and Durham Region. Visually, you’ll see large industrial buildings – out of place – amid green organic farmland. Extending into the sky there's a tall chimney that is continuously spewing toxic gases. This is happening along the windy shoreline of Lake Ontario, just 7 miles east of Oshawa, in the small town of Courtice, Ontario.
Garbage trucks travel as much as an hour away from York Region to dump loads of York Region’s residential garbage onto the floor of the incinerator building, it’s then sorted among loads of other garbage hauled from all over Durham Region. The garbage trucks are not electric, the carbon footprint they leave accumulates daily.
On the very professionally polished “Energy Centre” website, you can read that this is now called, "The Durham York Energy Centre". They even built a road and named it “Energy Drive” amid the corn fields in Courtice.
It is 100% owned by Durham and York Regions - government bodies that are desperate to find solutions for their growing municipal waste problems.
Cleverly designed for an innocent audience, the website’s objective it to make the viewer feel good about burning garbage that ultimately creates profit for the company. Sounds good?
What they don’t divulge is what the cost is to innocent people, livestock, fruits and vegetables we all eat, and anyone living near and far. The cost is cancer-causing particles from the high levels of toxins created in the burning process and dispersed into the air through the imposing chimney stack.
They don’t publicly disclose the degree of the toxins, though it’s nice to see that there’s a page that shows “real-time air data” emissions. There, you’ll find a chart that gives measurements of 11 chemical compounds, and if you read the preamble, it clearly says, “Data has not undergone final verification or complete quality control and quality assurance procedure”.
What?
It’s true. The data is unsubstantiated. It’s been previously written about in papers like The Star and Durham Region’s print and website, disclosing toxins as much as 12x the legal limit. (See below for sources and citations.) Why are there not updated reports anyone can view? Is the government not regulating this?
This is why we need action today. We need a full environmental assessment done now!
Clarington Council members and the Mayor of Clarington has said emphatically, “NO”!
Clarington Council must initiate a HOLDING BYLAW to halt this now, and to halt the building of more, in the plans now.
We don’t want another incinerator built here. We need an environmental assessment, full accountability first.
Durham Region is not listening. The plan is being pushed through, and they intend to add a large recycling plant as well.
Now is the time to stop this. We can come together, united, in our appeal, to insure safety for folks, and farm-grown meats and vegetables, not just in our community - but wherever the winds along Lake Ontario blow the toxic air.
Here’s how.
1. Sign your name to this petition. Leave a comment too.
2. Share this petition to your friends and neighbours and ask them to sign too.
3. Most importantly, CALL Clarington Councillors, and the Mayor. Let them know how important this is and to act right now to prevent more garbage being hauled here.
When we reach milestones, this petition will be emailed to the Clarington Council members and the Mayor of Clarington. They will know that we rally behind them to stop Durham Region before it’s too late.
Here's what we do know:
“Last month, Covanta, the company running the $289-million Durham York Energy Centre in Clarington, reported to the region that emissions from one of the two boilers at the plant exceeded the limits set by the Ministry of Environment for dioxins and furans by almost 12 times. ” Source: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/06/14/durham-grapples-with-incinerators-alarming-emissions.html
“Clarington Coun. Joe Neal said it was during the May test last year that an exceedance in dioxins and furans was discovered.” Source: Clarington Coun. Joe Neal said it was during the May test last year that an exceedance in dioxins and furans was discovered.”
Source: https://www.durhamregion.com/news-story/9154134-durham-incinerator-expansion-put-on-hold/
Please join us today to protect our future health and welfare tomorrow,
Your neighbour,
Karrie Lynn
PS: more info at