I am very much opposed to this nuclear storage site

Dear Sirs or Madames,

It is with deep sadness that I must write of my opposition to the deep geological repository for nuclear waste.  I am an ordinary citizen, I have no scientific background, but when I read, listen and research I can make an educated and thoughtful decision on this very disturbing decision and flawed process for decision.

I am not an Indigenous person, but my three grown children are.  Many of my friends are and I have spent much time learning about reconciliation and the impacts of treaty and our  collective need to work together on decisions that impact Indigenous rights.  There are a number of Indigenous communities that are impacted by the repository.  The ground water is not protected - there is no evidence that underground storage is safe.  And the scientific evidence shows this.  Eagle River First Nation is within the watershed of the area of Ignace and they were given no decision making powers.  That is not right.  

Of tremendous concern to me is the very fact that the transportation of this radioactive material will be hundreds and hundreds of kilometres.  All on roads that are dangerous.  There is hardly a week that goes by when there is a serious and deadly accident on Highway 17, and the northern route of Highway 11.  This is a highly documented highway of accidents with terrible fatalities.  We have been told that the trucks and containers are very safe.  I remember being detoured to Highway 11 from 17 when two tractor trailers collided head on.  There was only rubble left.  Tell me that the containers and trucks can withstand that.  I have driven the highway from winnipeg to Thunder Bay in the winter and seen tractor trailers in the ditch, snow plows in the ditch, vehicles in the ditch or crashed into rock cuts.  How can you say that this is safe?  How can you okay a repository and not include the transportation in the decision?  How can you try to snow citizens of this northland? These impacts have not been examined and must be. 

These decisions will impact my children, my grandchildren, your children, your grandchildren.  How can one tiny community be given the sole decision for the impacts on us, on others, on the environment?  How can lobbyists and Nuclear Energy Canada have the right to lobby politicians and geologists?  

I am not a scientist, I am a concerned citizen, I am a responsible, caring voter.  I will leave the rest to Rachel Carson.

Rachel Carson Quote:

"The most alarming of all man's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials.  This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible.  In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals { I may add radioactive material here} are the sinister and little-recognizied partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world - the very nature of its life.  

Sincerely 

Ellen Chambers