By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express

The operator of the Durham York Energy Centre has submitted its plans to getting one of the incinerator’s boilers back online.

The boiler has been offline for more than a week after it was shut down for exceeding furan and dioxin limits.

According to Mirka Januszkiewicz, the region’s director of waste management, Covanta, the site’s operator, submitted its plans to the region on Monday afternoon.

“Covanta has sent to us the final draft of the abatement plan, and I will be reviewing this plan (Tuesday). I will also be talking with the Ministry of Environment because they have final jurisdiction to approve the plan,” Januszkiewicz tells The Oshawa Express.

Whether the region had approved the plan was unknown at press time.

Speaking prior to the plans being submitted, Januszkiewicz says the provincial ministry is asking for detailed information from Covanta on how it expects to get the boiler back online and running as it should be.

“The Ministry (of Environment and Climate Change) is now getting involved in the approval of the abatement plan as well. They will be the one that will give the final approval, and they specified several items they want to see in the abatement plan,” she tells The Oshawa Express, later adding that the provincial body is looking for detailed plans of how Covanta, the site’s operator, is going to search for and fix the problem causing the exceedance.

“I expect the plan is going to come for my approval in the middle of this week, then it will go to the ministry and then the ministry is going to make the decision of whether the plan is sufficient…or if Covanta has to include more information.”

Boiler No. 1 at the Clarington incinerator was shut down late last month after testing confirmed that it had far exceeded its limits for dioxins and furans. According to the test, the first boiler emitted 818 picograms per reference cubic metre of dioxins and furans, more than 13 times higher the mandated level of 60.

According to Health Canada, dioxins and furans are a byproduct of the incineration processes, and can accumulate in biological tissues. The federal entity also says that while humans and animals are all exposed to the two compounds, exposure in higher concentrations can lead to serious health problems.

According to a news release from the region, Covanta is set to test the boiler’s auxiliary burners using natural gas in the mean time, but only to verify their functionality, adding the short tests are needed before any further investigations.

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