Michigan legislators intensify fight against proposed nuclear-waste disposal site near Lake Huron
If its project is approved by Canadian regulators, Ontario Power Generation would build a 2,230-foot-deep geologic repository that would hold low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste.

But the idea of permanent disposal worries Sen. Phil Pavlov, who represents a part of Michigan’s “Thumb” region (named for the peninsula that juts out into Lake Huron) and whose district touches the lake.
“The time to raise alarm bells and get engaged in this process is now, because once this project begins, you can’t undo it,” he says. “And the alarm bells should be going off beyond just the Thumb, but for everyone in the Great Lakes. It’s hard to believe that putting this waste 1,000 yards away from Lake Huron is the best option.”
The options for states to try to stop the Canadian proposal, however, are limited.
Last year, Michigan Rep. Sarah Roberts and Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (both are members of the Great Lakes Legislative Caucus, and Pavlov is as well) testified before the three-member joint panel in Canada that is currently reviewing the proposal.
The two lawmakers also proposed resolutions urging a “careful review” of the planned repository (SR 58) and asking the U.S. to oppose the repository and Canada to find alternatives (HCR 7).
The most recent resolutions in Michigan (SR 151 and HR 380) ask the president and U.S. Congress to “invoke the participation” of the International Joint Commission — the binational agency that addresses disputes between the U.S. and Canada over boundary waters. Pavlov and other Michigan lawmakers want the IJC to evaluate the disposal project. Two other resolutions (SR 150 and HR 379) call on the Great Lakes Commission (an interstate compact agency) to study the plan and take a position on it.
He has also created an online petition, www.ProtectLakeHuron.com.
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