Media Room

News Release

No Application for Disposal of Bio-Medical Waste

(Tuesday, March 16/2004)-- Councillor Reg Rankin said today he was surprised to read in a local newspaper today about a proposal by a Burnside company to handle bio-medical waste, with a view to disposing of it at the municipality's Otter Lake landfill.

Councillor Rankin, a member of both the Solid Waste Resource Advisory Committee (SWRAC) and the Community Monitoring Committee (CMC) for the Otter Lake plant, said Bio-Safety Management Inc. has certainly made no application to HRM for such an operation.

"It is our understanding that any such proposal would first have to have an Environmental Assessment Review by the Province before we could accept any application at the municipal level, he said "Once those requirements were met, the application would be reviewed by HRM staff, the Solid Waste Resource Advisory Committee, and the Community Monitoring Committee, before ever going before Regional Council."

Regarding the page three article in today's edition of The Daily News, entitled "Pilot Project to Treat Hospital Waste," Councillor Rankin said it is important for HRM residents to know that this proposal is not even being considered by the municipality.

He said it is HRM staff's understanding that:

Bio-Safety Management Inc received approval from NSDEL to conduct a two- week trial period to chemically disinfect hospital waste.

This test will be conducted at the company's Burnside site, with disposal at Cape Breton Regional Municipality's incinerator (as is currently done with all bio-medical waste in HRM.)

HRM did not receive a request for disposal at its Otter Lake facility.

Any consideration for disposal in HRM would have to go through consultations with SWRAC, Regional Council, Mirror Nova Scotia (operator of the Otter Lake facility) and the CMC.

It is HRM's understanding from NSDEL that any request for a permanent processing facility would have to undergo an Environmental Assessment

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Councillor Reg Rankin
(902) 499-3744