Sludge Watch ==> Sherbrooke Quebec - Nasty Toronto sludge provokes complaints

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sherbrooke Record
Quebec Canada

August 10, 2006


A mid-summer night's meeting: More concerns about Ferti-Val

Sondip Chatterjee, The Record


Sherbrooke waste management company Ferti-Val will be importing some of the 
Toronto sewage Michigan will no longer accept, and that has nearby residents 
and workers the city's borough of Brompton upset.

Andre Belanger, who works in Brompton, where Ferti-Val's composting 
facilities are located, delivered a petition and a lengthy complaint to the 
city council on Monday night.

"We have signatures from all corners of Sherbrooke and of the Estrie 
region," said Belanger.
Belanger questioned why "the city of rivers" would allow several extra 
truckloads of partially treated sewage to be composted two kilometres away 
from the St Francis River.

"Will the mayor of the 'city of rivers' become the mayor of the city of 
garbage?" asked Belanger.
According to Belanger, the risk of environmental disaster, the tarnishing of 
Sherbrooke's image in the eyes of tourists and the sheer cost of importing 
truckloads of sewage all the way from Toronto makes this deal a very bad 
idea.

Reports earlier this week has two truckloads of biosolids, the solid 
material separated from waste water, coming to the Ferti-Val plant in 
Sherbrooke on a daily basis.
The Michigan landfill is no longer accepting the waste because of complaints 
from residents that the odour was unbearable.

The city of Sherbrooke is working closely with Quebec's ministry of 
environment to make sure odor by-laws are respected, according to Mayor Jean 
Perrault.

Ferti-Val is a private corporation and can operate as long as it meets city 
regulations, he added.
For now, Belanger the Brompton mill worker is taking his fight up with the 
city cautiously.
The last person who complained about the smell emanating from the Sherbrooke 
Ferti-Val compound, Sebastien Lussier, is now facing a defamation lawsuit 
launched by the waste management company, seeking $700,000 in damages.