Stop burning garbage, residents plead

DENISE RIDEOUT

IQALUIT — Burning garbage: the stench, the clouds of acrid smoke, the health risks. It’s got some Iqaluit residents burning with anger.

They’re mad enough that they’re urging the Nunavut Water Board to prohibit the city from burning the heaps of garbage at the dump.

Trash has been piling up in Iqaluit for nearly three months, ever since the city and its employees locked horns over its unresolved contract dispute.

The open burning of garbage has long been a contentious issue in Nunavut’s capital.

According to its water licence, issued by the Nunavut Water Board, the city was supposed to stop burning plastics by June 1. The licence limits Iqaluit to burning food waste, paper, cardboard and untreated wood.

But Mayor John Matthews said the strike and a lack of money for an incinerator have left the city in a bind.

Realizing that Iqaluit wasn’t going to be able to meet its requirements, the mayor asked the water board for some leeway on the conditions of the licence.

But dozens of letters from Iqaluit residents show some Iqalungmiut aren’t sympathetic to the city’s plight.

They’re demanding that the water board reject the mayor’s request, saying burning garbage is a health risk to citizens and a hazard to the environment.

In one letter, Iqaluit residents Julia and Peter Krizan said they worry the city will have to burn garbage 24 hours a day for weeks just to make a dent in the pile.

“We are very concerned that this would have an enormous impact on the health of all residents. We have two little children and we would see no other choice than leaving Iqaluit for some time,” they wrote.

“We are very concerned and fear for our children’s well-being.”

The thought of dioxins and other toxins billowing into the skies around Iqaluit bothered many of those who wrote to the water board.

Neida Gonzalez, another Iqaluit resident, said she wants to see the burning stopped.

“The burning of garbage poses immediate health risks as far as air pollution, but also future land and water contamination,” she wrote. “It is an unacceptable way of dealing with the garbage of a city with thousands of inhabitants.”

Some residents also wrote that they’re concerned about the mounting garbage piles in the city. Mary Lou Sutton-Fenell, the president of Nunavut Employees Union Local 5, expressed her disgust at the rotting heaps of trash around town.

“The stench is not acceptable. The danger to children is not acceptable. The chemicals being washed down by the rain and running off into our bay are not acceptable. The ditches full of garbage are not acceptable,” she said.

Along with letters from concerned citizens, the water board also heard from the Nunavut government.

The Department of Sustainable Development urged that the board be sympathetic to the city’s plight. Robert Eno, the department’s pollution expert, asked the water board to take into consideration that Iqaluit is hampered by the strike.

Still, Eno said the department is concerned about what will be done with the garbage once the strike ends.

“We have received numerous calls from citizens expressing concerns about the size of the fire that will result from attempting to burn off three, four and possibly five months’ worth of garbage,” Eno wrote.

The water board is now reviewing the letters before it decides whether to grant the mayor’s requests.

Due to the public concerns raised about the garbage burning, the water board has said it may hold a public hearing on the matter. A decision is expected at the end of July.