‘We don’t want your garbage’: Northern township in shock after hearing Ontario is sending it radioactive waste

Residents of a small northern Ontario township 40 minutes west of Sudbury say they were blindsided by Ontario’s decision to transport radioactive waste from an abandoned mill 200 kilometres away to the tailing facilities in their community in the coming weeks. 

Nairn and Hyman, with a total of about 300 residents, became aware of the province’s plan when work began on the back roads leading to the Agnew Lake Mine last month, after there hadn’t been much action on that property since the Ministry of Mines took over in the 1990s.

“This project has been in the works for years. Why are we only finding out about it now?” asked Nairn chief administrative officer Belinda Ketchabaw said during an emergency joint council meeting Monday.

The province’s plan involves using the tailings on the property to store 40 tonnes of naturally occurring radioactive materials from the abandoned niobium ore processing mill near Nipissing First Nation.

The mill operated for barely a few months before shutting down in the 1950s and its tailings contaminated soil in the First Nation in the decades that followed. 

Remediation work there has been a long time coming, with the process of identifying and excavating the contaminated soil beginning in 2019. 

The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) and the Ministry of Mines are now moving on to the next step, which involves hauling the radioactive materials elsewhere. 

The tailings facility in Nairn was chosen as it is already designed to receive radioactive materials. It’s currently holding radioactive waste and byproducts of the fomer Agnew Lake Mine, which closed in the 1980s. 

Townships ask province to halt transport, consult with them

At the emergency meeting between the townships of Nairn, Hyman and Baldwin, MTO area manager Darren Stephenson said the plan ultimately intended to be beneficial for the receiving community. 

Stephenson said the niobium material coming from Nipissing First Nation is less radioactive than the materials currently being stored at the facility, and could act as a cap for the tailings before they are eventually covered with topsoil and revegetated. 

But Nairn Coun. Trevor McVey isn’t convinced. 

“It’s like putting good garbage on bad garbage — we don’t want your garbage.” 

Councillors around the table may hold different views about the project, but all criticize the lack of communication from the province. 

Ketchabaw feels the lack of transparency has fuelled mistrust about the province’s intentions.

“They’re telling us it’s safe. Then why so much PPE [personal protective equipment]? Why so many safety protocols?” 

Ketchabaw said more information is needed about how the transport and the storage could impact the environment and residents, and the safety plans must be shared with local emergency services. 

Nairn Mayor Amy Mazey echoed a similar feeling.

“We’re hearing conflicting things. On the one hand it’s naturally occurring and low risk, yet the safety protocols seem intensive. It just leaves us with more questions.”

McVey said the Agnew Lake Mine tailings have been poorly maintained in previous years and fears this is something that will continue. 

“They will forget about this site because it’s here, in Nairn and Hyman,” he said. 

All said they could eventually be open to the project if they had more information. 

Asked why residents were only being told about this a few weeks from when the transportation was set to begin, Stephenson replied he did not know. 

He did, however, field several questions about the safety protocols that would be in place during the transport of the materials.

A town hall is set to take place in Nairn and Hyman in the coming weeks.