Sludge Watch ==> Toronto still searching for sludge solutions - looking to New York, Ohio

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Lotsa scrambling going on.  It looks like there are distant landfills, 
diesel fumes, and high costs associated with Toronto's sludge disposal 
plans. Oddly enough..Toronto's 20 trucks of sludge have been described as 15 
trucks...last week reporters were told 14 trucks, and this story talks about 
11 trucks.  Funny to watch the City try to minimize the issue by suggesting 
a smaller and smaller convoy.

  On TV yesterday the determined band of residents near the Ashbridges Bay 
sewage treatment plant went over-the-top describing Toronto sludge as clean 
and superior and some of the best sludge anywhere.

They are still trying to suggest that the malodorous pathogenic muck with 
high heavy metals (the levels of Cobalt, Mercury, and Selenium are higher 
now than they were in 1996- Copper is unchanged at 1,100 ppm) respresents 
some kind of fabulous boon to any community except their own.  They continue 
to hope that by chanting the phrase 'beneficial use' they can impose their 
sludge on rural communities.  To the west of Toronto Peel Region has 
approvals for modern fluidized bed technology and Durham Region has similar 
plans that accommodate York Region sludge as well as their own.

The residents near the plant have sought to dismantle and delay any of the 
City's plans to investigate the environmental impact of rural sludge 
disposal versus an energy from waste or incineration approach.  So the 
province of Ontario, Michigan, now Quebec, New York State, and possibly Ohio 
will have their highways littered with convoys of pungent putrescing poo.  
Record heat and humidity will make waiting at the border near these trucks 
an added travelling treat.  And the diesal fumes will add to smog and air 
pollution.

Mayor Miller claims that the sewage sludge pelletizer will next year turn 
half of Toronto's sludge into shiny grey marbles of dried sludge.  But then 
what? After paying $350 to turn out a ton of the pellets there is no 
market...no one wants to buy them.  On top of that there has been an 
additional $25-30 per tonne  disposal fee.

I wonder if they are going to continue sending the pellets out to the 
Brenzil brothers at Empire Agri-Services.  Remember the heated up Toronto 
sludge pellets stinking out the storage facility at 1281 Old Thorold Stone 
Rd in Thorold?  Do you think we can expect to see these 
spontaneous-combutstion-prone pellets on top of the decomposing  paper 
sludge berms in Pelham?  While Ontario's Waste Management Policy Branch 
plays with its paper clips these unsaleable industrial wastes are found 
mounded up and leaching their toxic load in rural farm fields around 
Ontario.

Disposal of pellets: http://www.canadafreepress.com/2003/main110303a.htm


Toronto taxpayers are being asked to break open the piggy bank to support 
this insanity.  Look closely at Toronto's sludge plans and you will see only 
the self-serving and expensive spin of a City that wants other communties to 
accommodate its waste.

..............................................................................
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060801.GARBAGE01/TPStory/TPNational/Ontario/

01/08/06

Globe and Mail - Toronto
Council continues to search for sludge solution
City in discussions with landfills in New York, Ohio
JEFF GRAY

As of today, Toronto can no longer ship its sewage sludge to a Michigan 
landfill, but city officials say it is safe to flush the toilet.

The city is still in talks with several firms, including landfill operators 
in New York State and Ohio, to find more places to send its smelly sludge. 
But deals signed last week with firms that own two composting plants in 
Quebec mean the city has a home for about half of the 150,000 tonnes of the 
stuff it produces each year.

Mayor David Miller said yesterday that means the city now has six months to 
finalize deals with other sludge processors or landfills -- and to pursue 
its legal case against the company that he says reneged on a pledge to 
continue accepting Toronto's sludge.

"All of it, tomorrow, is fine. All if it, for the short term, we're 
completely fine, we have no issues." Mr. Miller told reporters. "It's the 
medium and longer term that we have some challenges."

Republic Services, the company that runs the Michigan landfill where Toronto 
sends all of its garbage and -- until today -- its sewage sludge, said in 
May it would no longer accept the smelly substance from Toronto, as part of 
a deal with state authorities to get permission to expand the landfill.

That left the city scrambling for a place to send the 11 to 14 trucks a day 
of sludge it produces, and seeking an injunction against Republic in Ontario 
Superior Court, where a hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.

Meanwhile, there was confusion at city hall yesterday after works committee 
chairwoman Shelley Carroll initially told The Globe and Mail and other media 
outlets that deals with three more firms had been signed that would see 
Toronto's sludge trucked to two facilities in New York State and a "massive 
landfill" in Ohio.

Mr. Miller and city officials said yesterday that this was not the case, and 
that negotiations were still continuing. Ms. Carroll later acknowledged the 
confusion and said she must have misinterpreted a briefing from Toronto 
Water staff.

The city also plans to use a facility at its Ashbridge's Bay plant to turn 
half of the city's sewage sludge into fertilizer pellets, starting early 
next year, the mayor said. The "pelletizer" was damaged by a massive fire in 
2003.

Local opposition forced the city to stop incinerating the sludge at the 
plant in 2001.

Shipping garbage and sludge to Michigan has long been controversial, as 
local, state and federal politicians have tried to restrict the flow of 
Canadian garbage over the border.

People who live near the Carleton Farms landfill where Toronto sends its 
garbage had long complained about the smell of the sewage sludge trucks, 
which carry the substance in trailers covered only by plastic tarps.

A truck carrying 31 tonnes of Toronto sewage sludge skidded to a halt last 
year in Flat Rock, Mich. -- a town along the route to the landfill -- and 
spilled enough of its load to create a 30-centimetre-deep mess along an 
entire city block.