Councillors consider Site 41 future

By Raymond Bowe Barrie Examiner October 28 2009,
As a handful of people outside held a banner urging Simcoe County politicians to have Site 41’s certificate of approval from the province revoked, councillors discussed the next steps for the controversial landfill.
The landfill, which had been under development north of Elmvale, was shelved by councillors last month after they bowed to mounting public pressure. There were concerns the garbage dump could contaminate the local groundwater.
Even though councillors voted to stop the landfill, there are still concerns because the county holds the Ministry of the Environment-issued certificate, which is transferrable if the upper-tier municipality were to sell the land.
A few dozen people also sat in the gallery Tuesday as councillors discussed the landfill and what will happen next.
Peggy Breckenridge, mayor of Tiny Township, where the property is located, said several questions and concerns need to be addressed, including why the county has chosen to retain the certificate even though the dump has been stopped, as well as how long it plans to keep the certificate.
Breckenridge also wants questions answered about why the landfill has only been winterized, and not completely decommissioned and the land returned to its original state, which is another beef for the protesters.
That needs to be fully explained,” she said.
Tiny Township deputy mayor George Lawrence said the MOE’s winterization parameters are actually being exceeded, even though that isn’t being conveyed to the public.
Communication is a big step in alleviating a lot of these concerns,” he said.
The county is backfilling the landfill excavation site using clay stockpiled on the property, said Chris Hyde, district manager at the MOE’s Barrie office.
The MOE doesn’t have winterization standards,” Hyde added, but sufficient amounts of clay will be backfilled to ensure the base doesn’t heave” from the upward water pressure.