AquaBounty site plan. (Image: www.gov.pe.ca)
AquaBounty application approval faces opposition
CANADA
Thursday, June 23, 2016, 01:50 (GMT + 9)
The Prince Edward Island (PEI) Department of Environment has approved an application by AquaBounty Canada to repurpose Snow Island's Atlantic Sea Smolt plant in Rollo Bay West, which is unwelcoming news for the Council of Canadians.
The company produces genetically modified salmon in its Bay Fortune, PEI, plant, and has been authorised to sell it as food in both the US and in Canada.
AquaBounty would use the new location to raise up to 13,000 conventional salmon to provide eggs that would be transferred to its plant in Bay Fortune — only 3,470 of which will be three- and four-year-old mature brood stock, CBC reported.
The company ensures no GMO activities will take place at the Rollo Bay facility and that the salmon and associated eggs there would not be GMO and that according to its environmental impact statement, the conventional salmon in the Rollo Bay facility will be housed inside tanks, inside a building.
However, the Council of Canadians sent a letter to the Department of Environment to register its objection, expressing concern about the amount of water that will be extracted, about effluent going into the stream and about the transport of eggs between facilities.
To its defense, the company explained that eggs transported between the facilities will be unfertilized, and shipped in rugged, sealed containers and that an employee will live on-site for security and to ensure the site is operating properly, according to the company.
However, the opposing group stated in its letter that they have monitored the Aqua Bounty site at Bay Fortune for many years and have found a tremendous abuse of the ground water.
“That site unleashes millions of liters of water a day into a nearby ditch - 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Often we find great deposits of waste from the GM salmon factory deposited in the ditch. This waste water flows into nearby Bay Fortune. ...[This water extraction] will have a significant impact on present water table levels in the area. Neighbours access to drinking water will be affected. We find this aspect of the request deplorable and unacceptable," the group argues in its letter.
Meanwhile, the province has set limiting conditions such as a ground water extraction permit allowing an average pumping rate of no more than 1,375 imperial gallons per minute, in total over a month.
Another condition is the discharge of between 80 and 120 gallons of water per minute upstream of the facility to ensure there is enough water in the stream year round and the disposal of sludge at a provincially approved location.
Nevertheless, the Council’s spokesperson Leo Broderick insisted “the PEI Government should never have approved this application. The proposal from Aquabounty is an environmental disaster for the people and environment of Rollo Bay West."
Related articles:
- AquaBounty GM salmon approved for human consumption
- AquaBounty’s expansion plans raise concerns
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