OH (NO) CANADA !

It seems those nice Canadians are planning two not-so-nice developments that well might gum up (or further gum up) the Great Lakes.
One is an underground radioactive waste dump just north of Kincardine, Ontario on the Lake Huron shore across from the Michigan thumb.
The other is a five-mile-long heavy oil refinery on the banks of the St. Clair River proposed by Shell Canada. The Ontario site would be across the river from the Michigan towns of St. Clair and Marine City, reports the Detroit Free Press.
Environmentalists on both sides of the border, while not wanting to stop these projects, do want to make sure that all the proper studies have been conducted and rigorous safeguards put in place.
Nuke dump
According to the Free Press, Ontario nuclear officials are planning to bury low- and medium-level radioactive waste from some 20 nuclear plants in the repository site which would be about a half mile from Lake Huron and 2,150 feet underground.
How long would it be there? Hundreds of years. Think of it as permanent.
Environmentalists caution that safeguard should be ensured for just not the next few years but for the duration of the storage.
A spokeswoman for Ontario Generation said that if the repository cannot be done safely, it will not be built.
Refinery plan
The refinery, to be located along the river shore which has small farms and marinas, would process up to 250,000 barrels a day of heavy crude oil from the tar sands of Alberta. Reportedly the difficult process of refining oil from the tar sands results in more heavy pollutants being released into the air -- including sulphur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, sulfuric acid mist and nitrogen oxides.
The plant would be about 12 miles down stream from Ontario's so-called Chemical Valley, which begins near the Lake Huron at Sarnia, Ontario with old-style chemical and power plants and oil refineries.
The new Shell mega-operation would include a new power plant, a tank town for holding the oil, hazardous waste treatment, storage for piles of coke and docks that could accomodate 870 oil tankers a year.
The critics say, "Be careful. Be very, very careful."