Abbotsford Coun. Patricia Ross will be in the Metro Vancouver meeting this morning when board members vote on a proposed waste management plan, which includes a controversial $470-million trash incinerator.

The plan, recommended earlier this month by Metro's waste management committee in a 7-5 vote, includes goals to recycle some of the 500,000 tonnes of garbage produced by Metro communities by 70 per cent.

Ross, also the chairwoman of the Fraser Valley Regional District, has asked the Metro board to reject the incinerator component.

She notes that 10 years ago, Metro leaders opposed the Sumas Energy 2 power plant because of the negative impact it would have on air quality in the funnel-shaped Fraser Valley.

The incinerator has the added threat of unknown chemical components, she said.

"Scientists and experts don't agree on the impacts of waste-to-energy incineration, in part because the technology to measure many of the associated pollutants doesn't yet exist. Its impact on health and the environment can't be reasonably assessed," she wrote in The Vancouver Sun on Thursday.

"We have a right to say 'no more,' " she added. The region's business community, including Vancouver Board of Trade chief economist Bernie Magnan, also criticizes the incinerator as an unknown expense to taxpayers,.

Most of the garbage, including Abbotsford's, is currently trucked to a Cache Creek landfill, which can be expanded for another 25 years.

If Metro Vancouver supports the incinerator, it must still be approved by the Ministry of Environment. While it's unknown which Metro community would be willing to take an incinerator, Gold River on the west coast of Vancouver Island wants the waste and the incinerator.

- For articles by Ross and Magnan, and for updates, see www.abbotsfordtimes.com.

CToth@abbotsfordtimes.com