Shred dump document: county

By BOB BRUTON Barrie Examiner May 25 2010
Site 41 has officially been dumped.
Simcoe County council decided Tuesday to ask Ontario’s Ministry of Environment to revoke the Certificate of Approval necessary to operate the Tiny Township property as a landfill.
Its zoning will be returned to agricultural and the land is not to be used for waste management in the future, with the exception of septics.
“I think they (county councillors) came up with a very reasonable solution to the problem,” said Ray Millar, long-time Site 41 opponent.
“I think it’s a major step in the right direction,” said Tiny Deputy-Mayor George Lawrence.
The decision was greeted with applause from Site 41 opponents who filled the county council gallery, and filled the parking lot with their vehicles, forcing many to park in the Simcoe County Museum lot.
Barrie MPP Aileen Carroll has said that all the county had to do was ask the MOE to revoke the Certificate of Approval, and it would happen.
A motion to sell this property — located on the north side of Tiny Township’s Concession 2, just east of Dawsons Sideroad — to the township was defeated.
Tiny Mayor Peggy Breckenridge said her township needs more time to consider this action.
“This hasn’t come up. We haven’t had a chance to ask our staff about it,” she said. “I am nervous about considering something before I have all the facts.”
“We have no information if Tiny is interested (in buying Site 41) and whether they can afford it,” said Ramara Township Mayor Bill Duffy.
Mark Aitken, the county’s CEO, said there could be other complications with selling Site 41.
“The land was amassed by a variety of means, including expropriation,” he said. “If one expropriates land and doesn’t use it for the reason it was expropriated, the land has to be offered back (to the original owners).”
County council also agreed to continue with minor site work on Site 41, and provide a report concerning its sale and that of associated properties.
“We need to look at recouping some of that $13.7 million,” said Severn Township Mayor Phil Sled about the money spent by the county, during the past two decades, to turn Site 41 into a landfill.
“We have spent a lot of money on that property,” said Duffy.
The vote to revoke the Certificate of Approval was not unanimous, however.
Bradford-West Gwillimbury Mayor Doug White said a decision should wait until the county’s waste management steering committee makes its recommendations next month.
“Why are we putting the cart before the horse?” he asked, and then answered his own question. “Because we want these people to go away.”
White then gestured to Site 41 opponents in the gallery.
“We need a multi-year solution of what we are going to do (with Simcoe County’s garbage),” he said.
At the beginning of 2009, only three of the county’s six landfills — Nottawasaga, Oro and Tosorontio — had remaining capacity, about 767,000 cubic metres. With about 110,000 cubic metres of capacity being used last year, the math alone shows the need.
Site 41 was to be one solution, but county council decided last summer not to proceed with its plans for a landfill there -after overwhelming public opposition.
Also called North Simcoe Landfill Site, it sits over what is reportedly a supply of pure drinking water.
Duffy suggested other solutions to Simcoe County’s garbage problems include considering incineration and a zero waste policy.
“But we don’t have control over that, the province does,” he said, noting that could be six to eight years away.
“Where is the garbage going to go? Just because we shut Site 41 down … people are still producing garbage.”
Millar said county residents need a new attitude on waste.
“The first thing is to stop worrying about what we are going to do with the garbage, and stop the flow of garbage,” he said.