folc.ca's comment on HAZCO's answer to FAQ #6

Note: The background text in the following was copied from the Frequently-asked Questions page at HAZCO's website, Nov. 2, 2005.  HAZCO's answers to "frequently asked questions" deserve further comments.  Those comments are inserted where required in HAZCO's text and are shown on yellow background.

From HAZCO's FAQ web page (quoted verbatim):

FAQ #6. How much will it [the construction of the HAZCO sulphur-storage and -handling site] cost?

The anticipated capital cost of the project is approximately $30 Million (Cdn.)

Comment: Right.  It is a choice location for prime industrial development.  Let's not waste it on an industrial waste-management facility that adds only minimally to our tax revenue, while the tax revenue it would provide would in all likelihood be insufficient to compensate for the damages the traffic to and from the facility would cause to our road network.  Given that the spokesperson at HAZCO's information office in Lamont stated November 4, 2005 that ultimately HAZCO's site will contain as many as ten facilities like the one covered by HAZCO's present application, the volume of sulphur-truck traffic alone would potentially increase to 500 to 600 trucks per day. Instead of the two unit trains each week, as per HAZCO's claims, the number of those trains would have to be in the order of two trains per day.  That would surely stretch the rail facilities indicated on the maps in HAZCO's information office.  Those facilities seem inadequate to handle the length of one unit train in the process of being loaded, let alone being sufficient to provide the additional space required to unload at the same time trains of tanker cars full of liquid sulphur. In the face of that, the constant $30 million figure quoted by HAZCO is truly odd and seems far short of the capital required to handle what HAZCO's spokesperson described. HAZCO continuously revises the design to be covered by its application for the first step in its proposed development, to make it smaller and smaller and to make it seem less and less threatening, while the estimate of the number of employees that the development will require is constantly being revised upwards (apparently to make HAZCO's application more attractive). Yet, the construction cost estimate of $30 million remains unchanged.  That adds to the concerns about HAZCO's credibility.  Perhaps HAZCO saw the need to improve its image, and that may be why HAZCO recently engaged a very high-priced and very powerful lobbying consortium comprised largely of former Alberta Government officials to aid HAZCO's cause. There is little doubt that the feeble resources available to the Friends of Lamont County will soon be put to the test when pressure by that lobbying consortium is brought to bear.

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Created Nov. 4, 2005