Sludge Watch ==> Toronto's Lawyer: "We'll Dump Sludge in Lake" - Mayor says" No We Won't"

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Things got awkward for the City of Toronto yesterday.  They were confronted 
with an uncomfortable gap between the story Mayor Miller was telling the 
press and the story the City's lawyer was telling the judge.

The Story the Mayor Tells:

The City has signed contracts with Fert-ival a Quebec composting company and 
with EMS - who owns GSI - another Quebec composter.  Fert-ival will take 2 
trucks per day (that's the way I heard it) and between Fert-ival and EMS 
they have agreed to take 70,000 tonnes of Toronto's annual 160,000 tonnes of 
sludge. EMS said it intends to send most of Toronto's sludge into landfill 
in New York state but may take some into Quebec. The Mayor said the short 
term crisis was solved but the medium term to long term issue of managing 
the total tonnage was still being negociated with landfills as far away as 
Ohio.  He also expressed hope that Toronto's benighted and burned-down 
pelletizer could be brought back on line by sometime next year to take up 
half of Toronto's sludge...and dry it into little pellets. Oddly, the Mayor 
didn't mention Terratec who until August 1st was taking ALL of Toronto's 
sludge and trying to put it on farmfields.

He confirmed yesterday that the City will not be putting the sludge into the 
lake.

The Story the City's Lawyer Told the Judge

The Lawyer said that the City has absolutely no place to put its sewage 
sludge and that therefore the Judge needs to provide a judicial measure 
ordering the Michigan landfill firm Republic Services to continue to take 
the sludge.  Republic Services was taking the sludge from Terratec, the huge 
sludge spreading company in Ontario (American Water Services).  Anything 
Terratec couldn't spread on farmland it sent to Republic Services Carleton 
Farms landfill.  According to the City, only 2 - 12 percent of Toronto's 
sludge went to farms in the last 3 years.

To enhance Toronto's plight, the City lawyer told the Judge that if she 
didn't grant Toronto's request for a judicial order to force Republic to 
take the sludge, the City would have no choice but to put the sludge into 
Lake Ontario and pile it up at Ashbridges Bay causing irreparable harm.

As you can see these are two very very different stories.  The City also 
told its staff that they were not to publicly discuss biosolids until the 
court case was over.  This was awkward last night at the meeting of the 
public committee that has oversight of the City's Ashbridges Bay 
Environmental Assessment...the ICMC committee.  Staff told the public that 
all items on the agenda discussing biosolids were removed from the agenda 
...including my presentation on biosolids characterization and health and 
environmental implications of land application.

In response, the Committee invited the City staff to leave the meeting and 
held the biosolids part of the meeting without staff present.

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www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060804.SLUDGE04/TPStory/TPNational/Ontario/

August 4, 2006

Miller awaits sludge edict, rules out dumping in lake
JEFF GRAY

Mayor David Miller says dumping sewage sludge into Lake Ontario is "not a 
choice," despite comments from a lawyer representing the city in court that 
suggest Toronto may be forced to do just that.

A court ruling is expected today in the city's effort to get an injunction 
forcing the company that accepts its garbage at a Michigan landfill to keep 
taking Toronto's sewage sludge for at least 90 days.

The firm, Republic Services, announced in May that it would no longer accept 
treated human waste from Toronto, effective Aug. 1. The city has been 
scrambling to find other places to put its sludge.

Mr. Miller said last week that two recently signed contracts to have half of 
the city's sludge trucked to composting plants in Quebec have bought six 
months of breathing room to find other firms to take the remainder. The city 
is in talks with several companies.


But in an Ontario Superior Court hearing Wednesday, lawyer Frank Newbould, 
acting for the city, warned that if Toronto doesn't sign any more 
sludge-disposal contracts, the "only alternative is to dump it into Lake 
Ontario or put in on the land near Ashbridge's Bay [treatment plant]." He 
said the city has only five days worth of emergency storage capacity for 
sludge.

Asked about the contradiction between the city's lawyer and his own 
comments, Mr. Miller said he had to be "careful" about what he said, because 
Republic's lawyers were using his earlier comments in court. But he appeared 
to rule out throwing sludge into the lake.

"Putting sludge into Lake Ontario, from my perspective, is not a choice," 
Mr. Miller said. "But I think the lawyer was illustrating the seriousness of 
the situation."

He said he is "optimistic" that the two agreements already signed, plus 
others being negotiated, "in combination with our court proceedings," mean 
the city will "find appropriate places for our sludge."

Monday, the mayor said the city has six months to finalize other sludge 
deals and pursue its legal case against Republic, which he says is 
contractually obligated to accept its sludge. "All of it, tomorrow, is fine. 
. . . For the short term, we're completely fine, we have no issues," he told 
reporters. "It's the medium and longer term that we have some challenges."

Republic Services is refusing the smelly sludge, long a bone of contention 
for people who live around its massive Carleton Farms landfill, as part of a 
deal with state authorities to get permission to expand their facility. The 
city argues Republic is obligated to accept the sludge at another landfill.


Globe and Mail
Toronto
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http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1154641812100&call_pageid=968350130169&col=969483202845


Miller won't budge on the sludge
Miller says sewage not bound for lake
City, Michigan flush it out in court
Aug. 4, 2006. 05:42 AM
JOHN SPEARS
CITY HALL BUREAU


Toronto will not flush sewage sludge into Lake Ontario to deal with a 
dispute with the company that handles the treated sludge, Mayor David Miller 
has vowed.

The city is in court this week with Republic Services Inc., which has 
advised the city it will no longer accept the treated sludge at its Carlton 
Farms disposal site in Michigan.

A city lawyer has suggested that if the sludge has no place else to go it 
could end up in the lake.

But Miller told reporters yesterday that won't happen on his watch.

"It's absolutely unacceptable for that to be an alternative, and I'm not 
going to let that happen," Miller said.

"Putting sludge into Lake Ontario from my perspective is not a choice. But I 
think our lawyer was indicating the seriousness of the situation.''

What exactly will happen still isn't clear, although a decision expected 
today may clarify the picture.

The city has asked Justice Katherine Swinton to order Republic to continue 
hauling the city's sludge, and dispose of it at a facility other than 
Carlton Farms.

Michigan's department of the environment has ordered Republic to stop 
accepting sludge at Carlton Farms. Republic operates other disposal sites, 
and the city is arguing that the company must use them if Carlton Farms is 
unavailable.

City lawyers have painted a picture of the city facing a crisis if Republic 
doesn't take the sludge — either flushing or spreading it near the treatment 
plant at Ashbridge's Bay. That contradicts what Miller and other councillors 
said earlier this week, when the city signed contracts with a firm based in 
Burlington and one in Quebec to handle some of the sludge.

At that point, the politicians said the new contracts gave the city up to 
six months' capacity for handling the sludge. That would tide the city over 
until the city completes building a plant that will turn the wet sludge into 
dry pellets. The plant is supposed to start up early next year.

Miller said that flushing the sludge into the lake or piling it up on shore 
are "not what we're seeking," but avoided saying just how much breathing 
room the city has if it doesn't get what it wants in court. "The two 
contracts we've signed provide us some flexibility," he said. "I'm confident 
with those contracts, with the other ones that are being worked on and with 
the court proceedings we will have appropriate places for the disposal of 
the sludge."

Miller clearly is counting on Republic being part of the solution. "I expect 
Republic Services, which is our partner, making considerable money off 
Toronto, to honour its contractual agreement," he said. "We'll see what the 
judge says."

Sludge disposal is growing more difficult because jurisdictions no longer 
want sewage sludge to be spread as fertilizer. Then the Carlton Farms site 
in Michigan was closed because of complaints from residents.

The city had hoped that it could turn about half its sludge into dry 
pellets, which can be used for fertilizer, but a plant being built at 
Ashbridge's Bay to process pellets burned in 2003.


......................................................................
The St Catherines Standard

August 1, 2006



Disposal deals prevent sludge fiasco in Toronto



BODY:
Deals reached last week with two composting companies will allow Toronto to 
dispose of all of its treated human sewage sludge for the next six months, a 
city spokesman said Monday.
Brad Ross said the two companies - Burlington-based Environmental Management 
Solutions Inc. and Ferti-Val of Bromptonville, Que. - have agreed to take 
the troublesome, smelly waste byproduct off the city's hands while officials 
look for a more permanent solution.
"We have two signed contracts we had put in place last week that will be 
able to handle 100 per cent of all of our biosolids in ... the next six 
months," Ross said.
The city will continue to look for other solutions for the sludge in the 
meantime, he added.
Toronto produces roughly 160,000 tonnes of the sludge each year. As of 
today, a Michigan landfill site will stop accepting the material in order to 
placate area residents who say they can't stand the stench.
Republic Services, which owns the Detroit-area landfill Carleton Farms, said 
in May it would stop taking sludge from all cities, including Toronto, 
leaving the city 60 days to find new locations for the sticky, gooey 
substance.
ould turn about half its sludge into dry pellets, which can be used for 
fertilizer, but a plant being built at Ashbridge's Bay to process pellets 
burned in 2003.


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