Some of Canada’s top environmental lawyers are among nearly a dozen applicants requesting to appeal the province’s decision to let Lafarge burn tyres as fuel at an eastern Ontario cement plant. 
 
Though the deadline to submit an application wasn’t officially until midnight Friday, the Environmental Review Tribunal, which oversees appeals, had received 11 written requests to appeal by 4:30 p.m. 
 
Sierra Legal Defence Fund, the Canadian Environmental Law Association and environmental lawyer Joe Castrilli submitted a 50-page joint application. 
 
They are representing Bath, Ont.-area landowners, Loyalist Township landowners, the environmental group Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, as well as Tragically Hip lead singer Gord Downie. 
 
The public had been given 15 days to request an appeal after the ministry unexpectedly announced just before Christmas its decision to permit Lafarge to burn tires and municipal waste at the Bath plant. 
 
At the same time, the province proposed an Ontario-wide ban on burning tires until government can study its effect on the environment. The ban prevents other companies from applying to burn the waste. 
 
Currently, no facility in Ontario burns tyres.