NATURE

Sea, land, river

PEOPLES

Community

For earlier materials see Table of Contents

Council and Citizens	September 26th
	Whose interest?

Let the People speak

And the China Trip report finally makes it onto the agenda

Citizens’ concerns – ask Port?

Several Rupertites used public question period to voice concerns over potential dust, noise, and health issues that might accompany the Pinnacle Pellet marine facility announced at last council meeting

Potential truck traffic also discussed

· NIMBY (not in my back yard) – or city wide issue? – And what was not even mentioned --- Fire

Mayor Mussallem says Pinnacle presenters promised ‘No noise, no dust, and no smell’ --- they certainly talked about abatement but I heard no blanket statements – more on this later but the real issue is quantifiable agreements – monitoring etc --- ‘Dust will not exceed XX units’ etc

Using the web technology to review the issues

I have placed a link previously to Pinnacle presentation --- so here I note the Jennifer Cadillac (?-name unclear) question begins approximately 25 minutes into the video replay followed by Camille Mark a Water St resident with a son who has two rare auto-immune conditions (35:30)

The first series question emphasize the loss of property value, ‘sleep’ etc --- I will return to this later but note the fire and explosion dangers were not mentioned by anyone

Majority of incidents related to:

•Dust explosions and fires

•Self-heating and spontaneous combustion

•Hazardous emissions

I have taken image left from an online UBC PPT where wood pellets in bulk are seen as a hazardous material

One would hope that a Pellet marine facility in a residential neighbourhood (or even out at Ridley) would meet the latest safety and building standards – but these type facilities might be too new to have any proper certification procedures (currently being ‘discussed’ ISO/TC238) )---Also read Wood Pellet Association of Canada PDF where standards advocated – to counter the looming high insurance rates caused by ‘incidents’

Here are the recent incidents at Pellet facilities from the WPAC pdf

More on the danger of pellets in residential area later --- especially where ‘Hazardous Material’ when in bulk

Note too that Coal Dust issues are similar – read this ENGO PDF on Coal Terminals in US --- and think why Ridley is being ‘saved’ for US coal shipments

What was meant to be the highlight of meeting – China Trip presentation

So called the ‘Asian Twinning Trip’ by Mayor Mussallem --- the presentation online begins at approximately one hour and two and a half minutes into the meeting