remains undamaged by the new incinerator, the acting Environment Minister said yesterday.

The Hon. Dr. Clarence Terceira, who as Works Minister is building the $71 million North Shore plant, issued a seven-page statement saying the plant would meet the most stringent international standards.

But successful protection of the environment was also contingent on help from the public, he said.

"There is much that the public can do to ensure that our waste management programme works as effectively and safely as possible by fully participating in the recycling and waste separation programmes,'' the Minister said.

Dr. Terceira's statement was aimed at concerns raised by the Ontario Government's decision last month to ban new incinerators.

Environment Minister the Hon. Ruth Grier, in announcing the ban, described incinerators as a "threat to both human and environmental health.'' Dr. Terceira said testing and modelling of the Tynes Bay plant had established that its operation and the disposal of its ash "will be safe and well within ambient and water standards found anywhere in the world.'' He detailed Government's efforts in recent years to establish an environmental framework to judge the incinerator's impact.

They included wind tunnel tests of smokestack emissions, estimates of potential for acid gasses from the stack, measurements of nearby water quality as well as at the airport where the incinerator's ash blocks are to be dumped and air quality measurements at the point where stack emissions may have their greatest impact.

"The results of these extensive environmental impact studies show that the incinerator has been designed to provide a completely safe operation from both health and environmental perspectives,'' Dr. Terceira said.

To illustrate, the Minister referred to the decision to increase the height of the smokestack to 91 feet from 71 feet above sea level.

Tests had shown that emissions would be felt to the "greatest extent'' at Prospect from a northerly wind -- "which occurs less than five percent of the time.'' Dr. Terceira said the decision would eliminate any threat to Prospect. The Minister said his statement was intended to answer local concerns that Government had not taken seriously health and environmental issues associated with the incinerator.

"Government is fully aware that Bermuda's environment is fragile and that we must be especially careful not to pollute water tanks, the ground water reserves, soils and vegetation,'' he said.

Continuous monitoring of the incinerator's impact is to be carried out for the Environment and Health Ministries by an independent organisation. Its work will in turn be reviewed by a board made up of US and Canadian environmental scientists.

Dr. Terceira said the smokestack will be monitored continuously for the emission of hazardous emissions such as sulphur dioxide and soot.

Plans are afoot to manually monitor the well-being of the surrounding areas.

A monitoring station is to be set up at Prospect to "examine the impact of all air pollution sources.'' Monitoring will be measured against air and soil samples that have been collected for the past few years.

The Minister noted the incinerator was given the final go-ahead after two "exhaustive'' Development Applications Board hearings.

Incineration was the best available option for Bermuda, he said.

"We simply have run out of places to bury garbage. There is no other real alternative for the disposal of our household wastes.'' Government programmes encouraging people to "reduce, recycle and re-use'' their garbage did not completely answer the Island's need.

"There is much of our waste that cannot be re-used or recycled,'' Dr.

Terceira said.

But recycling and re-use programmes "will remove a significant volume of hazardous and other waste from the incinerator. Removal items include electrical appliances, batteries, PVC plastics, paint solvents and pesticides.

"With public cooperation, the recycling and re-use initiatives of Works & Engineering will remove key materials from the waste stream...

"Public cooperation...will make our incinerator even safer, because whatever comes out of the stack or ends up in the ash is, to a great degree, a direct reflection of what went into the incinerator in the first place.''