morning lineup firegeezer on 11 Aug 2008 08:04 am
Morning Lineup - August 11
After watching total destruction of an industrial gas supply depot in Toronto yesterday, if you’re wondering why such a facility was permitted in the middle of a long-established residential community, then welcome to the club.
National Post
The area was largely developed during and immediately after World War II around a collection of wartime factories with most of the housing dating back 50 to 60 years. And while it’s accepted that the original zoning allows for some industry, apparently there are no regulations there for high-hazard occupancies like Sunrise. I wonder why not?
The large storage and transfer facility was built on the site just four years ago and the citizens have been complaining about it since the day they started constructing it. Apparently, the politicians who have the final say over such things weren’t all that bothered about it. Publicly, they’ll be saying things like “The zoning laws permitted it.” But what they won’t be admitting is that they could have very easily amended those ordinances to restrict such dangerous occupancies from setting up in that particular industrial park. And again the question will come up, “Why didn’t they?”
Richard Hawrelak, a plant design engineer who lectures at the University of Western Ontario said that Canada, in contrast to other countries like the United States and some European nations, lacks firm rules governing the storage of dangerous substances like propane near concentrations of people.
“In the States, they’ve got a damned good system,” said Hawrelak. “(In Canada) it’s a toothless, gutless wonder.”
Meanwhile the so-called deputy mayor went on national television and said that the (4-yr.-old) plant was there first and all those people should have known better than to move there. My own cynical distrust of local politicians and zoning boards gives me a lot of doubts about this situation. Unfortunately for the rest of us, if there was any favoritism involved in this deal, then the layers of responsibility will be thick and almost impossible to cut through.
The Toronto Globe and Mail has already begun looking into the checkered past of Sunrise Propane’s owner and his legal problems. In one instance a ruling against him complained that, ”He adjusted his evidence so often that it was apparent that he was manoeuvring himself out of liability.” It also noted his “sloppy” management of the company.
The fire is out now, but there is still a lot of dirt left to be dug up.
While they start that, we’d better get the equipment checked. I see that the coffee pot needs refilling.
