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Odour issue prompts call to relocate proposed organics facility

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In Council Watch
Feb 23rd, 2017
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Only Most Expensive ERRC Option Passes Smell Test

All Simcoe County taxpayers will pay through the nose to place waste management facility where it does not belong

from Friends of Simcoe Forests

Friends of Simcoe Forests is calling on Simcoe County Council to reconsider placing its proposed Environmental Resource Recovery Facility (ERRC) in the middle of Freele Forest because it will be too expensive to mitigate the excessive odours produced by this waste management facility.

The Facility Characteristics Report prepared for Simcoe County includes a preliminary Odour Assessment to determine if it is likely this facility will meet provincial environmental requirements. While the report concludes it is possible for the facility to comply if it is “carefully designed and operated”, a closer examination of the report paints a very different picture.

The report considered six different configurations of facilities to calculate the likely level of odour production (see Table 7.1 of the Facility Characteristics Report). A facility that produces more than 1 Odour Unit (OU) at sensitive receptors more than .5% of the time would not comply with provincial requirements. Two configurations significantly exceeded these levels, and a third only passed because it did not include the Organics Processing Facility (OPF) in its calculations.

“We’re puzzled why an option to run the ERRC without an OPF was even considered, since organics processing is half the purpose of the facility,” stated Cindy Mercer of Friends of Simcoe Forests. “To deliberately omit it suggests they’re trying to make it appear there are many possible options that pass standard, and that’s not true.”

Two other configurations appear problematic as well. One only qualifies as a pass by .01%, equivalent to operating less than an hour below standard per year, based on preliminary estimates. Actual measurements could easily exceed this level, and it would be irresponsible to approve construction in the hopes of maintaining that precise reading.

The other problematic option shows the facility operating at a significantly reduced flow rate. No suggestion as to how this low level would be achieved is given; is it by the use of special filtration systems or by operating the facility at a reduced level of production? No details are provided in the report; every other option bases its calculation on a high flow rate.

That leaves just one option that meets provincial standards, and the report wording suggests this will be the most expensive possible facility configuration (see section 7.4 of the Facility Characteristics Report). As the County has yet to produce a financial feasibility study on this facility, there is no way to know what the potential cost of this ERRC might be. Based on the Odour Assessment produced for the County, it seems clear the only option that will satisfy provincial regulations will push this facility to the higher end of any financial estimate.

“The amount of odour filtration required to place this facility in the middle of a forest surrounded by family homes and farms is going to make this a very expensive project,” said Mercer of Friends. “They’ve produced this report that makes it appear they have several options, but the only one that truly works is the most expensive of the bunch.

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