Many questions, few answers at Midland special council meeting on toxic plume

WaterWatch report
Last night’s suddenly called special meeting of Midland council (councillors were not advised it was happening until late Friday) provided few answers regarding the toxic plume leaching from the North Simcoe waste transfer station (a former dump) on Wilson Rd.
However questions prepared by Councillor Stephan Kramp reveal a nine-year history of compliance issues and a lack of enforcement by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment of its regulations.
“Personally I believe this is demonstrates how the MOE B7 Reasonable Use Guidelines mean absolutely nothing,” commented Tiny township resident and Dump Site 41 opponent Stephen Ogden, who attended the meeting.
”The County has demonstrated they can easily ignore the regulations without any regard to the Ministry’s concerns. Remember the County’s reliance on B7 at Site 41 if the liner failed? Site 41 was going to leak and the MOE appears to be powerless to protect our environment regardless of Environment Minister John Gerretsen’s promises.”
Midland councillors did not have the most recent 2009 Interim Monitoring Report on the site, prepared by Jagger Hims (Genivar) for Simcoe County.
Councillor Stephan Kramp was able to access a copy – as well as earlier ones – and prepared a series of questions regarding a number of instances in which problems identified as far back as 2002 by the Jagger Hims reports and MOE staff have not been addressed by the County.

For instance, in 2002, there was correspondence between the County and the Ministry regarding acquisition of a contaminant attenuation zone (CAZ). The ministry also noted that its B7 Reasonable Use Guideline were being exceeded north and east of the site for several parameters including TDS, Iron, Manganese, TCE, Vinyl Chloride.
“The Ministry cannot continue to review reports indicating exceedances without actions being undertaken,” a letter stated in 2006.
Furthermore, the County is refusing to investigate the sources of TCA (trichlorethylene, a solvent that’s a known carcinogen). The County’s Technical Compliance Supervisor Kimberly Pickett told the MOE in a May 15, 2009 letter: “Our consultants have determined that the TCE concentrations are not landfill related, and it is not our responsibility to find other sources.”
No MOE staff attended the special meeting.
The County was represented by Environment Services Director Rob McCullough and Pickett.
McCullough explained that the County needs an agreement with Midland and Tiny to address the movement of leachate from the former landfill and comply with an MOE requirement – first communicated in 2002 – that it set up a contaminant attenuation zone (CAZ) and track the plume.
Tiny council approved its part of the Wilson Rd. deal without question.
Kramp supplied his questions to all members of Council and apologized for not having provided them in advance, however he did not have the documents.
He explained that many of his questions were directed at the MOE and was disappointed that they were not in attendance.
Mayor Jim Downer directed that Kramp’s questions  be answered by McCullough in writing and the Ministry would be given a copy of the questions for their response.
McCullough was unable to advise Council where the outer limits of the toxic plume are at this time.
Kramp reminded council that Simcoe North MP Bruce Stanton is committed to take steps to ensure independent monitoring to measure the threat to Penetang’s source water.

Councillor Stephan Kramp’s questions for the MOE and Simcoe County