City council is turning to larger municipal organizations to lobby Ottawa to require a federal environmental assessment for projects such as the proposed rail-tie gasification plant approved for Kamloops.

Coun. Marg Spina put forward a motion at council’s regular meeting Tuesday to go to the Southern Interior Local Government Association and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities calling for the two groups to urge the federal government to require the assessment of all co-generation plants fuelled by “agents containing potentially toxic compounds.”

The motion was made in reference to Aboriginal Co-generation’s plan to destroy creosote rail ties in a gasification process.

Council supported it unanimously. Absent was Mayor Peter Milobar, whose father died Tuesday morning.

The anti-rail-tie gasification motions didn’t end there.

Coun. Denis Walsh, who attended a forum Sunday on air quality related to the proposal, put forward a motion that the City write Interior Health to look into toxicity of dust from the Aboriginal Co-generation storage site.

Coun. Tina Lange added an amendment to write the B.C. Ministry of Environment about the issue, too.

She said afterward she has heard staff has been chipping up the rail ties at the site without even wearing appropriate equipment.

She and other council members have been deluged by residents’ objections to the project.

“I’ve never had so many emails on a subject,” she said, estimating she’s getting 10 to 15 a day and it’s increasing.

“I’m hearing there’s a lot of fear.”

Even people who have read the scientific studies on the project say they don’t want Kamloops to be labelled as the city where creosote ties are being gasified.

“The perception is that this isn’t a healthy place, when we’ve spent so much to promote that,” she said.

Walsh said there are still people just finding out about the gasification project, which has had the approval of Interior Health and the B.C. Environment Ministry.

“There’s a huge movement and I think it’s going to grow.”

An emergency room doctor at Royal Inland Hospital has also written about his concerns. Dr. Alan Vukusic contacted City council about what routes are open to stop the proposal.

Walsh said Vukusic has suggested more doctors are coming on side and some are considering leaving Kamloops if the gasification plant is built.

“We don’t want to lose doctors because of the creosote here,” Walsh said.