I am not concerned with the construction of a plastic plant in the bowl area – I am furious!
We are in the age of plastic reduction and shouldn't even be considering such a plant. If this plant was going to recycle our existing plastic, I wouldn't be as concerned but they are not. They are going to use our natural gas to produce more plastic. Our planet is choking on the mountains of plastic we already have. We are killing our lands, waterways, and oceans. We need to clean up the mess we have and not add to it.
The issues at stake here are:
- Using natural gas to produce plastic. Do you know what happens when there is a great demand for a commodity? Yup, the price goes up, and up and up. So Prince George, get ready for skyrocketing gas prices. Might even be some shortages thrown in there. Keep in mind what happened when one line was shut down for a period after the pipeline exploded.
- Ethylene extraction. That's right – they are going to extract ethylene from the gas, then further refine it to produce polyethylene to make plastic pellets. In other words, the natural gas we all use to heat our homes will become plastic pellets. This entire step could be skipped if they just used the existing recyclable plastics. Leave our natural gas alone.
- By-product production. The company in question says they can do this without producing environmental pollution. Air pollution is one thing we will have to deal with but this company has conveniently skipped over the by-product of this whole procedure. Mono-ethylene glycol – more commonly known as antifreeze – is extemely poisonous. It seems that there are plans to eventually collect this product and send it overseas to Asia. In the meantime what's going to happen with it? Tailings ponds? I suppose those could be fenced and covered to keep wildlife from being poisoned but this plant is right on the river and the soil in the bowl area is sandy loam. This will leach through the soil and into the river where it will kill the fish, birds, deer, moose and whatever else might use the river.
Prince George, we have to take a stand.
West Coast Olefins has stated that only a "minority" have expressed opposition to this project. We have to show them they are wrong. If there is a petition against this project, I will sign it. If there is a demonstration, I will be there. I don't know what else to do right now but write this letter but if there is an opposition group, I would sure like to join.
Jean O'Brien
Prince George
