Money up in flames

The region may finally be getting what it wanted – but at what cost?

Recent testing has shown that the Durham York Energy Centre is operating the way it is supposed to, emitting well below the regulated limit for dioxins and furans. The tests, done as part of the abatement plan put in place after the incinerator emitted way more toxins than it should have back in May, show that the improvements undertaken earlier this year appear to be working.

But isn’t this something that should’ve happened a long time ago?

Remember, the incinerator was originally supposed to be running and fully operational by December 2014. The site didn’t even begin testing to go into operation for another nine months after that, at which time the first tests showed that it was pumping out more dioxins and furans than allowable.

It wasn’t until this past January, more than a year later, that the incinerator was given the green light, and only after regional councillors voted to amend the contract with Covanta, the site’s operator, so that it could retroactively pass the testing phase.

And then five months later, the site was making headlines again after pumping out dioxins and furans well above the limit – it was this exceedance that brings us to the abatement plan.

Durham has also paid out some of the money it held back from Covanta – totaling $12.65 million – after it completed a to-do list of improvements to the site. Gioseph Annello, the region’s manager of waste planning and technical services, described the list as “items that were not quite completed that did not affect the operation of the plant, but still needed to be completed.” Covanta will receive the other $12.65 million if it keeps the site up and running as it was supposed to for two years.

The region may celebrate that its trash burner is up and running like it was originally designed to. But residents need to remember that this is a project that is, in the grand scheme of things, two years late. These are errors that should have been caught much earlier and addressed.

And to boot, the budget for the project has swallowed up nearly $300 million, which is

nearly 10 per cent higher than the original budget. This is money that could have been spent on improving the region’s roads – something Durham is already facing a budgetary shortfall on if it wants to keep up. Or perhaps it could have been spent on more rent-geared-to-income housing, which has a waiting list longer than the amount of people using it? Or maybe it could have gone to improve the regionally owned and operated retirement homes?

There’s a long list of things that this money could have, and should have, gone towards. But instead, we are left with a $300-million incinerator that, two years late, is operating the way it was supposed to.