Swim Drink Fish Blog
Read the latest updates and news releases about community science, water monitoring, Artists for Water, and more.
Can the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission do better?
If you’ve followed some of our previous work, you know that Waterkeeper questions whether the CNSC effectively serves the public as an impartial regulator. Today, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper is joining Greenpeace Canada, Ecojustice, the Canadian Environmental Law Association and others in calling on Prime Minister Trudeau to initiate a twenty year review of the Nuclear Safety and Control Act.
Trudeau must strengthen federal nuclear safety law say environmentalists (Media Release)
In the run-up to the fifth anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, over a dozen environmental groups are asking Prime Minister Trudeau to strengthen Canada’s key nuclear safety law to address weaknesses exposed by the Fukushima disaster and public concern regarding the independence of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC).
Asking Canadian and U.S. federal governments to jointly monitor radionuclides in the Great Lakes
Waterkeeper is one of over 100 organizations from around the Great Lakes who are calling on the Canadian and American governments to list radionuclides as a “chemical of mutual concern” under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (2012). A new report by the Canadian Environmental Law Association outlines the shortcomings of current efforts to track radionuclides and explains what changes needs to be done to monitor these radioactive discharges in the Great Lakes.
Memo: Analysis of Minister McKenna’s Decision on the DGR
In 2006, OPG submitted a proposal to store low and intermediate level nuclear waste in a deep geological repository (the ‘DGR’) along the shores of Lake Huron. Recently, the Minister of the Environment, Catherine McKenna rejected the Joint Review Panel's EA Report and requested additional information from OPG. Mark analyzes the situation and highlights the significance behind this telling decision.
MEDIA ADVISORY: Public interest groups in court to appeal plan to refurbish aging nuclear reactors
Public interest groups are in the Federal Court of Appeal today to ensure that human health and environmental risks are carefully considered in a plan to refurbish four aging nuclear reactors at the Darlington site on the shores of Lake Ontario. This comes on the heels of the Toronto Executive Committee’s passing of a motion calling for a review of nuclear emergency plans.
Inside #DarlingtonNuclear, Part 3: Disclosure of Information – Too Late, and Maybe Too Little?
More than half way through the Day 2 Darlington Relicensing hearing, the focus shifts to emergency planning. When it's made clear that important information is not distributed to the public in a timely manner, Tristan questions the accuracy of the claims made by OPG or the CNSC staff and the safety of the project.
Inside #DarlingtonNuclear, Part 1: The importance of public participation
Yesterday, the four-day Day 2 relicensing hearing for the Darlington Nuclear Generation Station began. During the hearing members of the public, NGOs and community groups that applied to intervene will raise their concerns in front of Canada's nuclear regulator, the CNSC. Lake Ontario Waterkeeper law students, Tristan Willis and Hannah Gladstone will attend all four days providing daily insights on what happens in a CNSC hearing. Here, Hannah provides the first glimpse into this daunting process.
MEDIA ADVISORY: 4-day hearing on future of Darlington nuclear power plant begins today; Waterkeeper among the first to present
Waterkeeper will argue that the current plan poses a threat to Lake Ontario and should not be licenced for an unprecedented 13-years. Fish kills and stormwater contamination, in particular, threaten the lake, which provides drinking water to 9-million people.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission: A Short History
Next week, our Articling Student will attend the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s Day 2 hearing for the relicensing of the Darlington Nuclear Plant. Since it will be Tristan's first time attending a CNSC hearing, his research has led him to ask two very important questions: What is the CNSC? And where did it come from?
Waterkeeper's submission to participate in Darlington's relicensing process
On September 28, 2015, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper submitted a request to intervene during the Day 2 Relicensing Hearing for the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station (DNGS). Tristan quickly summarizes Waterkeeper's five major concerns with the nuclear operation as well as our recommendations. Also, flip through the entire submission to see DNGS's stats and all of our findings.