Sludge Watch ==> Will the Ontario judge order US landfill to take Toronto sludge?

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Here are some notes from the Toronto courthouse where lawyers for the City of Toronto are trying to convince a judge to order a Michigan landfill
to take Toronto sludge.  Repubic Services owns the Carleton Landfill in Michigan.  Republic Services has been taking sludge fromTerratec (American Water Services), Ontario's biggest sludge spreading company.  The sludge that Terratec doesn't manage to smear on Ontario farmland, until recently, has been trucked into the landfill.


 Republic's Michigan landfill has been getting sludge from Halton, Hamilton, Owen Sound, Windsor, Niagara Region and Toronto according to court documents.  Almost all of 
Toronto's sludge has, until August 1st, ended up in the landfill.  But sludge is very stinky, and Toronto sludge especially so.  Neighbours to the Michigan landfill have made over 800 complaints...and now the Michigan Dept of Environmental Quality has ordered the Carleton Farms landfill to stop taking all sewage sludges.  

Until now they were putting the sludge into the landfill with an admixture of trash.  The mix was 13% sludge to 87% trash. But the stink was intolerable.  Interestingly it was also 
intolerable stink that forced Terratec (American Water Services) to close the Toronto sludge storage lagoon in Halton a few years back.  

So the landfill Carlton Farms is NOT ALLOWED TO TAKE SLUDGE anymore.  Any sludge.  Not even Detroit sludge.  

But Toronto is claiming in court that it has absolutely no other place to put its sludge other than this US Michigan landfill and that Republic Services is obligated to continue to take the sludge.  Republic Services is saying they have no contract with the City of Toronto to take sludge...they just took sludge from Terratec.  Toronto insists that its municipal trash contract includes sludge.   Republic Services says that it got the sludge from Terratec, and did business with Terratec, and only invoiced Terratec. They say that the City of Toronto had make arrangements with Terratec to take all their sludge, and that Terratec's contract with the City of Toronto reads that Terratec had to have contingency plans in case the border to the US closed or in the event the landfill was unavailable. 

Apparently the Terratec contingency wasn't there..since the City...and this seems odd...is trying to make the US landfill responsible for its sludge waste rather than Terratec..who was supposed to have contigency plans in the event this landfill fell through. 

The City suggests that even though the Carlton Farms landfill is closed to sludge Republic Services could haul into Brent Run.  But Brent Run is  a much smaller landfill and would be arguably overwhelmed with Toronto sludge.  Apparently there are neighbors much closer to the landfill in Brent Run.  And Toronto sludge would be almost 20 % of the capacity of the landfill....at least that is the way I heard it explained.  So since Toronto sludge was stinkin them out when mixed with lots of trash (13% sludge), it is really like to be unstable if the sludge is an even higher percentage of the deposited waste (18% sludge).

Lawyers for the City of Toronto claimed that Toronto will suffer irreparable harm if the Michigan waste company isn't forced to take Toronto sludge. They actually claimed that Toronto would have to put the sludge into Ashbridges Bay in Lake Ontario.  Yes, Toronto's lawyers really said that.  Here the Mayor is telling reporters that the sludge solution is at hand in the short run, and that EMS and Fert-ival will take Toronto sludge into Quebec and New York State.  But at the same time the City of Toronto's lawyers indicated to the judge that Toronto will have no choice but to put the sludge in Lake Ontario in violation of Ontario law and cause irreparable damage to the environment.  Huh?  How is this credible?  Toronto is saying this isn't merely a contract matter about money...they are suggesting that the  City of Toronto would have no option but to pile up sludge at Ashbridges or throw the sludge in the lake,  They are telling the judge she must act now to protect the lake and to prevent the neighbours from exposure to sludge illness and odour .  (Kind of ironic really.  Toronto says its sludge is safe to stockpile and spread on rural land but would cause irreparable harm if stockpiled at the sewage treatment plant in the City.  If only this injuctive relief had been available to rural residents who really HAVE been exposed to Toronto sludge stockpiled and spread in their community).


And what, lawyers argued, is going to happen if the judge actually orders Republic Services to take the sludge?  If they take sludge into Carleton Farms they will violate the Michigan court order not to take it.  And if they put it in Brent Run they will likely (they argue) simply get another odor nuisance order from Michigan Dept of Environmental Quality.  Can an Ontario judge really force Toronto sludge into Michigan landfills?  

The judge will continue to hear arguments today.  She will render her decision by this Friday.
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