I am writing not only on my…

I am writing not only on my own behalf (I have COPD) but also for my wife, my children, grandchildren and great grandchild all of whom reside in Clarington at points east and northeast of the St. Mary's Cement plant.

Nearby is a massive retirement village, and a small town (Bowmanville) is also in the area along with schools, playgrounds, sports fields, farm markets, and Lake Ontario. etc.

St. Mary's Cement is already one of the largest polluters of air in Ontario. By granting them permission to start burning garbage and other municipal/industrial waste would be a travesty and a pox on the many people who live in Clarington and beyond.

We already host the Durham-York Incinerator with its negative contribution to our air quality, and they too are planning to burn 250,000 tonnes; up from the 160,000 tonnes per year currently.

St. Mary's propose to burn about 146,000 tonnes per year. There has been very little public notice about this project, and their website does not contain all pertinent information about testing, etc.

Together, if both projects are approved, we will see incinerators in our municipality spewing toxic airborne waste from the burning of close to 396,000 tonnes per year.

Please, for the sake of our health, do not approve the St., Mary's application (even for a lesser amount), and when the time come, please do not approve expansion of the Durham-York incinerator.

This type of thing diminishes citizen efforts to recycle. It encourages the production of single-use waste items, and it pollutes the air that we breathe.

My understanding is that the Ministry of Environment is here to protect citizens from slowly being subjected to toxic substances, and not here to provide a licence to corporations/companies to make a bigger profit at the expense of citizens health.