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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
RESOLUTION OPPOSING THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY IN THE GREAT LAKES BASIN
WHEREAS, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is proposing to construct a deep geologic repository (DGR), which is an underground long-term burial facility, at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station site in Kincardine Ontario Canada, and bury and abandon in the DGR all of Ontario's low and intermediate level radioactive nuclear waste, some of which remains highly radioactive and toxic for over 100,000 years. The proposed site is approximately one kilometre inland from the shore of Lake Huron and about 400 metres below the lake level; and
WHEREAS, Ontario Power Generation did not consider or evaluate any other actual sites for the location of the proposed DGR; and
WHEREAS, fresh water is the nation's and Canada's most important resource and should be protected and managed prudently; and
WHEREAS, the Great Lakes are an irreplaceable natural resource, containing twenty one percent of the worlds, and ninety five percent of North America's fresh water, vital to human and environmental health and economic and agricultural well-being of both Canada and the United States of America; and
WHEREAS, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are hydrologically connected as one continuous water body and any contamination resulting from a leaking nuclear waste repository located on Lake Huron could affect Lake Michigan's waters, the source of drinking water for almost 7 million residents of 11 northeastern Illinois counties (Boone, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will); and
WHEREAS, Lake Huron and connecting waters including Lake St. Clair, are a source of drinking water for millions of people downstream in Canada, the United States of America and First Nations; and
WHEREAS, individuals, citizen and environmental groups and municipalities and counties in both Canada and the United States have expressed concern and opposit...
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