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PCBs IN OUR BACKYARD

Almost half of the PCBs which are utilized on PEI are used on the UPEI campus. Ac- cording to Environment Canada documents, 3630 litres out of the 7626 litres which are in use on the island, are located on the campus.

“There are three transform- ers in the basement of the util- ity building and three more trans- formers in the library” says Eu- gene McCabe, the Supervisor of Trades on campus, and the man who looks after the maintenance of the transformers. “Environ- ment Canada checks them once a year and I check them once a month for leaks.”

PCB stands for Polychlori- nated biphenyls, which are syn- thetic chemical compounds used in a wide range of industrial and consumer products. They are used as a coolant and insulating

fluid for the transformers on cam- pus. In recent years, the govern- ment has prohibited the import- ing, manufacturing, and offering for sale equipment that contains PCBs. However, this occurred af- ter 16 000 tonnes of PCBs across Canada had entered the environ- ment. And the current problem is that they are dangerous to hu- mans but they won’t break down naturally in the environment.

There are 6866 litres in stor- age in the province, but none of these are on the campus. All of the PCBs on campus are in use and there have been no leaks from the transformers since their in- stallment. If there is a leak in the future, UPEI would have to store

the PCBs and then leave it up to Environment Canada to dispose of them.

However, according to André Lavoire of Environment Canada,

this could be a problem.

“There are no facilities in Canada licensed to destroy highly concentrated PCB wastes. ' Nor can Canadian authorities simply send them elsewhere, since ‘U.S. will not import PCB wastes, and most European states won’t ac- cept shipments either.”

Lavoire also said that only 0.1% of the PCBs found in Canada are on PEI and that he thinks most people are really frightened because they aren’t sure about what is being done by the government to control, the

~ amount of PCBs entering the en-

vironment.

“But really,” he said, “En- vironment Canada is certainly making sure that the use and storage of PCBs are safe.. They check transformers and other storage sites regularly.”

_ Three Universities Among Major PCB Sites

by Laura Boback and Tu Thanh Ha

OTTAWA (CUP) - Carleton University, the University of Lethbridge and the University of Toronto have more than 1,000 litres of PCBs stored on cam- pus, according to Environment Canada documents.

According to » gov- ernment lists, other schools stor- ing lesser quantities of polychlori- nated biphenyls include the Tech- nical University of Nova Scotia, Dalhousie University, the Univer- sity of Windsor, the University of Waterloo and York University’s Glendon College.

The inventory — which lists more than 2,500 PCB storage sites in Canada — was released Sept. 8 following an emergency conference of federal and provin- cial environment ministers in Ot- tawa.

PCBs are toxic chemicals that were often used as a coolant for electrical equipment. Their pro- duction was restricted in 1977 af- ter research showed PCBs caused

cancer, brain disorders and birth defects on lab animals.

The ministers agreed at the conference to phase out PCB use by 1993. The meeting was held in the wake of last month’s fire at a PCB warehouse at St-Basile- le-Grand, near Montreal, which forced the evacuation of 3,500 res- idents.

While promising to end PCB use in five years, the environ- ment ministers’ conference failed to come up with regulations to destroy current inventories.

Kai Millyard, a member of the environmentalist group Pol- lution Probe, said the ministers’ announcement was only a “mini- mal” solution. :

“PCBs have been a known problem for 15 years. It’s ap- palling we haven’t had basic dis- posal standards long, long ago.”

Officials at Carleton said that PCBs on their campus are not flammable and that quantities

stored are ten times less than -

stated government figures.

-An inventory by the Ontario Ministry of Environment mis- takenly said the university had 23,000 litres of the hazardous substance.

Carleton is storing only about 2,400 litres of PCBs in a metal cargo container outside its main- tenance building. The amount — more than two liquid tonnes — still qualifies the school how- ever as a major storage site under provincial guidelines.

Ministry official Greg Mont- calm said the inventory error is significant and will be investi- gated. He said that inspec- tors inadvertently added “an ex- tra zero” in March when record- ing the number of litres stored at the site.

The Carleton inventory is made of either mineral-oil PCB of low flammability or askarel, a non-flammable PCB used to cool electrical transformers, said Car- leton security officer Mel Gilby.

The chemicals are locked in a

heavy steel container and are in- .

spected every month, according to Gilby.

“Storage of PCBs by itself is not hazardous if it is inspected regularly — but without disposal methods, you are still left holding the. bag,” said Pollution Probe’s Millyard.

According to him, there are no licensed techniques in Canada to destroy highly concentrated PCBs like askarel yet.

The only PCB incinerator in Canada is located at Swan Hills,

Alberta, but it does not accept:

PCBs from out of province.

According to the released in- ventory, there is more than 1,600 litres of PCBs at the University

of Toronto, found mostly at the school’s Institute for Aerospace Studies and at the chemistry de- partment.

There are 1,500 litres of PCBs at Lethbridge, 200 at Dalhousie and 240 at the Technical Uni- versity of Nova Scotia. The re- maining schools are described as having “less than one tonne” of chemicals.