N.B. doctors call for 3rd-party study on health impacts of Tantramar gas plant project – New Brunswick
A group of more than 300 doctors and dentists are calling for an independent study on possible health impacts of the controversial Tantamar gas plant project.
They’re renewing their call for the province to consider other options, following last week’s auditor general report on the project.
The 500-megawatt natural gas and diesel power plant is proposed for a rural area in Tantramar, N.B.
New Brunswick’s provincially owned energy corporation, NB Power, entered into a long-term agreement without regulatory approval and selected equipment without studying alternatives, auditor general Paul Martin said in his report.
The medical staff at Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre first spoke out in March to oppose the project.
Following the auditor general’s report, the group is voicing their concern again.
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“Physicians note that there is a broad scientific consensus demonstrating that the use of fossil fuels is a significant source of air pollution. Air pollution is associated with increased rates of respiratory and cardiovascular disease, emergency medical visits, hospitalizations, and premature deaths,” reads a news release from the medical staff this week.
“At a time when healthcare resources are already under significant strain, these consequences must be taken into account in any major energy decision.”
Genevieve Côté, a Memramcook, N.B.-based family doctor, speaks on behalf of the doctors. She works not far from where the proposed gas plant project will be based and is concerned about how the plant will affect people’s health.
And while ProEnergy, the American company that has a 25-year contract with NB Power to install and run the turbines, completed its own human health risk assessment, Côté says that’s simply not enough.
“We are not reassured by the human health risk assessment. We need to know how the study was done,” she told Global News in French.
“We’re not reassured and we have evidence there would be health impacts.”
Côté says her group wants a new independent third-party study to be completed on the province’s other options.
In a statement, NB Power argues the ongoing environmental impact assessment is sufficient.
“The EIA is a formal, structured process overseen by government regulators and supported by a wide range of technical studies completed by qualified third party experts. These studies assess potential environmental, social, and health related considerations specific to the project and its proposed location,” it said.
Meanwhile, a citizen-led group opposing the plant has also voiced their dissatisfaction with ProEnergy’s health risk assessment.
“The health assessment was — and this is an understatement — was not sufficient, did not cover air quality, water quality, water usage and how that might affect the people in the surrounding area, but also New Brunswickers,” said Lisa Griffin, a spokesperson with Protect the Chignecto Isthmus Coalition.
The project still has to clear the province’s environmental impact assessment, as well as a Mi’kmaq rights impact assessment, before going ahead.
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