A controversial proposal to build a biomedical waste incinerator in Beiseker is dead after a decision by Village council Nov. 13.
By a unanimous vote, council defeated a land use redesignation request that would have paved the way for G-M Pearson to build the facility. The decision was greeted with enthusiastic applause by residents of Beiseker, Irricana and Rocky View County (RVC) in attendance, who demonstrated outside Beiseker Community Hall before the meeting’s start, chanting, “We don’t want incineration, so council please vote no.”
“Obviously, we’re very happy,” said Jennifer Ladrillo Green, an Irricana resident who helped organize opposition to the proposal. “This is exactly what we wanted. We knew that a unanimous decision would be our best bet.”
“Democracy has prevailed,” added Jane Senger-Lang, a resident of RVC. “This wasn’t about fear; this was about research and care and concern for our community and for our loved ones, our family, our way of life, our agriculture.”
The proposed development would have employed 22 people and disposed of approximately 8,000 tonnes of biomedical and other non-hazardous waste per year, according to G-M Pearson. The redesignation was originally considered by council at a public hearing Oct. 15, at which time council opted to gather additional information from Alberta Environment and Parks, Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services.
“Alberta Health and Alberta Environment had no real issues with this operation,” Mayor Warren Wise said, in reference to a Nov. 8 meeting with the provincial ministries. “As long as it met their regulations, they were perfectly happy with it.”
Regardless, Wise said, “a number of factors” influenced his decision to vote against the bylaw – foremost among them the opposition by the public. The proposal galvanized residents of the village and surrounding communities, with Ladrillo Green, Senger-Lang and others citing concerns about health and G-M Pearson’s track record.
“There’s been a great uproar, and there’s been very little, if any, support for it in the public,” Wise said. “Obviously, we’re swayed by that.”
He wouldn’t characterize the issue as polarizing, he added, because there weren’t enough people in support of the proposal.
Wise said, in his opinion, G-M Pearson could have “provided an awful lot more information” to residents.
Following the decision, G-M Pearson owner Joe Kress said he was “a little disappointed,” but not surprised. Wise and Kress both said there was no possibility of appealing council’s decision, and Kress said definitively, an incinerator will not be built in Beiseker.
The company will now “go back and study our options” for a different location for an incinerator, he said, but he would not elaborate on either the possible location or the company’s other options.
“Incineration for medical waste disposal is essential,” he said. “It has to go somewhere. Alberta needs an incinerator.”
G-M Pearson owns the land where the facility was intended to be built, and while Kress said there were no plans for the land at this time, he left open the possibility the land could be sold.
“I’m so proud of our community,” Ladrillo Green said. “We came together and united so passionately, and I think it is a validation of our resolve as people, and also that we are worthy to live in a small town and enjoy small-town life in its healthiest, cleanest, finest, best way.”
