Sludge Watch ==> Toronto's Sewage Sludge May go into Lake Ontario

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=de1d143f-599d-404e-b398-8e21af715a89&k=42556


Thursday » August 3 » 2006

Toronto's sewage sludge may go into lake
'Stinkiest stuff'

James Cowan
National Post


Thursday, August 03, 2006


TORONTO - A Michigan landfill's decision to no longer accept sewage sludge 
could force Toronto to dump tonnes of human waste into Lake Ontario, a court 
heard yesterday.

City lawyers appeared in Ontario Superior Court yesterday seeking an 
injunction to compel Republic Services to continue processing Toronto's 
sludge for the next 90 days. The company stopped handling the treated human 
waste at Carleton Farms, a Detroit-area landfill, on Aug. 1.

While a pair of contracts signed last week will divert half of the 160,000 
tonnes of sludge produced by the city annually to new sites, lawyer Frank 
Newbould said the city could still be facing a crisis if Republic does not 
reopen its gates.

"There is no guarantee the city will be successful in signing additional 
contracts," Mr. Newbould said. "The only alternative is to dump it into Lake 
Ontario or put it on the land near Ashbridge's Bay [water-treatment 
centre]."

Under the deals signed last week, the city will send 50,000 tonnes this year 
to GSI Environment Inc. and 20,000 tonnes to Ferti-val Inc. Mayor David 
Miller and Shelley Carroll, the works committee chairwoman, have both told 
reporters that those deals bought Toronto six months to find a home for its 
remaining sludge.

But Mr. Newbould said Toronto still has only five days of emergency storage 
capacity. He said the situation will be "nip and tuck" as the city awaits 
the court's decision, which is expected this week.

"If we'd solved the problem, we wouldn't be here," Mr. Newbould told the 
court. "They're working night and day to get the problem solved, but they 
haven't."

Mr. Newbould said Toronto produces as many as 15 truckloads of sludge each 
day, but Ferti-val is able to handle just two trucks and GSI Environment can 
take only six or seven loads. While some of the leftover sludge can be used 
for agricultural purposes, the remainder must be kept in storage.

Sam Rickett, Republic's lawyer, challenged his opponent's warnings of an 
impending crisis.

Mr. Rickett said it was unlikely both Mr. Miller and Ms. Carroll would lie 
to the media.

"If elected officials were telling us that we have six months, that the 
short-term is taken care of, and then turned around and broke the law by 
dumping the stuff in the bay, that would be really remarkable," Mr. Rickett 
said.

He argued the city is attempting to save itself at the expense of Michigan, 
adding it would be politically unwise for a Canadian court to order waste be 
shipped to the United States.

"What [Mr. Newbould] is asking you to do is foist this environmental 
disaster on Michigan instead of Toronto," Mr. Rickett said.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality ordered Republic to stop 
accepting sludge at Carleton Farms following numerous complaints. Toronto 
argues the material should now be sent to Brent Run, another landfill 
operated by Republic in Michigan.

According to Mr. Newbould, Republic is contractually obligated to accept the 
sludge at Brent Run. In response, Mr. Rickett argued that Republic's 
contract explicitly addresses only garbage shipped from the city's seven 
waste transfer stations, not sludge coming from a water-treatment centre.

He said Republic attempted to broker a separate contract for sewage sludge, 
but city officials repeatedly refused.

"This is the stinkiest stuff you can imagine," Mr. Rickett said. "If we were 
going to take it, we would have something signed."

While Mr. Newbould admitted waste from Toronto's water-treatment centre was 
not addressed in the initial contract, he argued it has been added by a 
subsequent agreement. He noted sewage sludge is included in the contract's 
definition of waste.

jcowan at nationalpost.com

WHAT IS SLUDGE?

Sludge is a byproduct of the water treatment process. When wastewater 
arrives at a treatment plant, any solids are allowed to settle and drop to 
the bottom of large collector tanks. The solid material is then siphoned 
off, pressed to remove as much water as possible, and shipped to another 
site. As much as 50% of the city's sludge is used as agricultural fertilizer 
while the rest is shipped to landfill. The city's capacity to store sludge 
varies with the weather. During periods of heavy rain, the collector tanks 
become filled with water and there is not as much room to store the sludge 
itself. Toronto sends between 150,000 and 160,000 tonnes of the sludge -- 
otherwise known as biosolids -- to landfills each year.

.............................

Sludgewatch Admin:
Half of the sludge is 'fertilizer'?  No..read the court documents from Lou 
Di Geronimo , City staffer.

He said 90-98 percent of the sludge in the past 3 years has been hauled to 
landfill in Michigan.
Time to change the City of Toronto website info ..don'tcha think?