Potential Regional Assessment of Radioactive Waste Disposal in the Ottawa Valley (Canadian Impact Assessment Registry reference number 81624)

Reference Number
16
Text

Dear Minister Wilkinson,

 

It is vital that the City of Ottawa’s call for a Regional Assessment of the Ottawa Valley radioactive waste disposal projects under the Impact Assessment Act of 2019 is supported. Nothing can probably be done regarding past contamination of the Ottawa River but it is imperative that future pollution is prevented. It is fortunate that so simple a step as not permitting a vast mound of nuclear waste to be placed adjacent to the Ottawa River is still possible. The quality of the drinking water of all citizens supplied by municipal water taken from the Ottawa River must be protected.

I have spent almost all of my summers just below the junction of the Chalk and Ottawa Rivers. Yesterday I read a letter from a resident similarly placed listing her own and the cancers of a number of her neighbors who also drank the river water. My own sister developed ovarian cancer of unknown origin as she has no genetic markers for this disease. In my childhood our water came from a pipe placed directly into the Ottawa River. Now I and my two children and seven grandchildren have become islanders who also take water directly from the river. This passes through filters which may keep out biological contaminants but cannot clean out nuclear residues. Belatedly we now no longer drink the river water and ferry vast quantities of bottled water down to our boat and then up to the cottage. There would not be a sufficient supply of bottled water when the proposed Chalk River mound begins to leak for the many residents supplied by municipal water taken from the Ottawa River. Nothing can be done about past leaks but most certainly it is imperative and perfectly simple to prevent such dangers in the  future.

Yours sincerely,

 Diana Gillam

Submitted by
Administrator on behalf of  Diana Gillam
Phase
Screening
Public Notice
N/A
Attachment(s)
N/A
Date Submitted
2021-07-08
Date modified: