Residents of Beiseker and the surrounding area are raising concerns after they found out about a proposal to build a medical waste incinerator in the village.
The facility is being spearheaded by Alberta’s GM Pearson Biomedical Waste Specialists and is planned to be built along Highway 9 entering Beiseker.
The plant won’t cost taxpayers anything and will create about 22 jobs in the town, but residents are still concerned with what negative environmental impacts it could have.
“Certainly health effects to our children, ourselves,” said Jennifer Ladrillo, an Irricana resident, on Monday. “There’s a lot of agriculture and livestock here as well.”
Environmental impacts aren’t the only thing upsetting locals. They say there has also been a lack of communication about project details.
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“We’ve looked back in the records to see that council had got this proposal in November of 2018, so this is something they’ve been working on for quite a while now for us to have only heard about it on Sept. 16, almost a year later, came very shocking,” Ladrillo Green said.
The incinerator would burn biomedical waste, including medical equipment, pharmaceutical waste and medical product recalls.
A petition opposing the facility has circulated through the village and now has over 120 signatures — roughly 15 per cent of Beiseker’s population.
Beiseker council will hold another public hearing about the facility on Tuesday. Immediately after, a second and third hearing will be held along with a vote on if they will amend the land use bylaw for the site.
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