Little clings to C of A

An attempt by Tiny Deputy Mayor George Lawrence to get Simcoe County’s corporate services committee to put the Dump Site 41 issue to bed and support revocation of the Certificate of Approval prompted an angry outburst from Adjala-Tosorontio Deputy Mayor Doug Little.
Any decision has to be based on what’s important for Simcoe County, not Tiny Township, he said.
Little, who is the committee chair, accused Lawrence of “jumping the gun” and said he was tired of having the issue raised before a new waste steering committee is in place.
“We don’t know what we’re going to do with the property,” said Little, suggesting that Site 41 might be used as a waste transfer station.
He added later “I have no intention of lifting the C of A on the property until this committee has decided whether they need it or they don’t need it.”
A report from Environmental Services Director Rob McCullough states that “revoking the certificate of approval prior to knowing what the future use of the site will be limits potential uses.”
The occasion of Lawrence’s motion (which was lost, only Tay Deputy Mayor Michael Ladouceur and Oro Medonte Deputy Mayor Ralph Hough voted to support him) was a Nov. 14 resolution from Tay Township calling for C of A revocation.
Councillors happy with Site 41 winterization
With regard to a report on the winterization being done at Site 41, Lawrence said he felt there was good news to report. He said the word ‘winterization’ was confusing the public and asked for clarification.
McCullough said that the term may have led people to believe that only the minimum amount of work has been done. “We’ve certainly gone far further than the minimum,” he said – which would have been to fill the hole with just enough material to allow turning off the dewatering pumps.
In fact that has been exceeded and the pumps were turned off on Oct. 26. The backfilling is not to the same elevation as before, but what is left is “a small depression,” not a hole, McCullough said. A total of 41,000 cubic metres was removed, and 30,000 has been put back in.
The report states that significantly more clay than anticipated has been replaced which is beneficial as the topsoil pile can be preserved for other purposes.
A motion from the Site 41 Community Monitoring Committee recommending that the excavation be backfilled entirely was received without comment.