Independent tests have found alarming levels of dioxins in ash collected near Metro Vancouver Regional District’s waste incinerator in Burnaby, raising fears of widespread contamination and long-term health consequences.
More than 23,000 people live within three kilometers of the incinerator, not counting workers who are also exposed to its emissions. For years, nearby landowners have watched ash-like particles piling up on their buildings and vehicles. The new test results have spurred environmental and public health groups to confront Metro Vancouver’s lackadaisical approach to the facility’s hazardous emissions.
Opponents of the Metro Vancouver incinerator say it’s location exposes local people to pollutants. Metro Vancouver counters that pollutant levels are dispersed far below concentrations set by the province | Photo: Zero Waste BC
Built in 1988 near the Queensborough Bridge and the Fraser River, the incinerator is owned by Metro Vancouver, licensed by the Province, and operated by global mega-corporation Veolia North America at a cost to taxpayers of $245 million for the next five years, plus millions more to replace aging components.
According to Dr. Tim Takaro, physician-scientist with the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Metro Vancouver claims the facility is “designed to prevent dioxins and furans from entering the environment, and that incinerators ‘do not create a health risk to the public or people working in the vicinity.’ However,” he adds, “this incinerator is clearly a source of hazardous pollutants in an already polluted airshed.”
Design flaws
Dioxins and furans are unavoidable byproducts of incineration; there is no way to prevent these toxic compounds from forming in burn chambers and smokestacks. The airborne particles and gases released by the Burnaby facility also include mercury, lead, arsenic, hydrochloric acid, and sulphuric dioxide. But Metro Vancouver does not conduct continuous monitoring for any of these poisonous compounds. That worries nearby property owners, who took it upon themselves to test the particulates on their rooftops.
Sue Maxwell, chair of Zero Waste BC, recalls: “We were approached by landowners that have a warehouse nearby in Metro Vancouver because they were concerned that they need to clean off their roof on a regular basis of some kind of buildup of dust or particulate matter. They had already done some testing for metals… We recommended they test for dioxins and furans because metals can come from multiple sources. Dioxins are much more of an indicator of incomplete combustion.”
“It should not take citizens testing rooftop debris themselves to confirm what frontline communities have been saying for decades,” comments Denaya Shorter of the US/Canada region at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives. A coalition of local and global groups is calling for a comprehensive, independent study of the incinerator’s toxic emissions as a first step to protecting public health and the environment.
The price of pollution
Dioxins are the most toxic substances on earth because they do not break down over time. They are not shed or excreted by the body; instead, these compounds accumulate in microorganisms, reptiles, birds, mammals, and humans. Levels become more concentrated higher up the food chain. Whales and other sea mammals in the Arctic, thousands of kilometres from the nearest industrial dioxin source, have extremely high levels of dioxins in their tissues. The Inuit who rely on them for food carry some of the highest concentrations of dioxins in the world.
Dr. Douglas Courtemanche of Doctors for Planetary Health – West Coast warns: “Dioxins are potent carcinogens and endocrine disruptors that have an adverse effect on neurological and reproductive development in the early stages of life and have dangerous hormonal and reproductive effects in adults.”
“It should not take citizens testing rooftop debris themselves to confirm what frontline communities have been saying.”
Similarly, heavy metals like lead and mercury cause permanent damage to brains, nerves, and endrocrine systems, especially in children. They accumulate in rivers, creeks, and soils. Like dioxins, the body can’t get rid of them efficiently, and they build up in our blood and muscles.
Sulphur dioxide and hydrochloric acid come with their own costs to human health and the environment. Years ago, the Province set a goal of reducing those emissions from the Metro Vancouver incinerator, but in this case, it’s hardly a priority: the Province is allowing the incinerator operator to take all the time it wants to reduce emissions. The current deadline is 2028, a full seven years after the first permit requirement – and Metro Vancouver is appealing to extend the deadline yet again.
Burning questions
Who benefits from the incinerator? Its cheerleaders include the Regional District, the facility’s operators, and producers of non-recyclable waste, especially plastic and fossil fuel lobby groups like the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada and the Canadian Plastics Industry Association. The Regional District touts the facility as a “waste-to-energy” plant that burns garbage to create electricity, although it’s neither clean nor efficient. It will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade its output and connect it to the district grid.
Poor air quality from exhaust, heavy industry, and wildfire smoke should compel the Regional District to track and eliminate airborne contaminants. But when it comes to the most toxic pollutants on the planet, the incinerator seems to get a free pass. The operator tests for dioxin emissions only once per year, on just one of the facility’s three boilers. And the operator chooses when that test happens, ensuring the cleanest possible result.
Tests are not conducted during the times when dioxins and furans are most likely to be released due to incomplete combustion: at startup, shutdown, and times of abnormal function. In other jurisdictions, testing is continuous, giving regulators precise data about how much dioxin is being released into the environment.
In an alarming example, a UK “energy from waste” incinerator is facing fines and potential legal action for “under-reporting” that the facility broke pollution limits 916 times between 2022-2024. Here, that under-reported data wouldn’t exist in the first place.
At the end of the day, about four-fifths of the incinerator waste goes up in smoke – a “landfill in the sky.” The remaining ash is either dumped in the municipal landfill or sent to a hazardous waste disposal site.
Burning garbage is, of course, prohibited in Metro Vancouver and most other places to protect air quality and public health. Growing evidence of the incinerator’s risks may serve to galvanize Greater Vancouver’s population and government to take on the waste problem at its source.
Watershed Radio interviewed Sue Maxwell about pollution from the Burnaby incinerator affecting people and the environment. Listen to the podcast at www.watershedsentinel.ca/radio
