Sludge Watch ==> Ontario gov't must act to stop deregulation of paper sludge - Editorial

[Maureen Reilly]

www.thegrimsbylincolnnews.com

Grimsby Lincoln News

June 14, 2006

Editorial

The Town of Pelham, bordering both Lincoln and West
Lincoln, this week became the latest in a long list of
communities across the province to register concerns
about the dumping of sludge in its municipality. Local
residents joined protesters in Pelham as they blocked
the path of trucks making a sludge delivery to a private
residence. Sludge, a byproduct left over from the paper
recycling process, consists of unusable fibres, inks and
clay, glue and other residue as well as chemicals used in
the process. (More than half the raw paper used in this
recycling process comes from outside the province and
is not a result of local blue box programs.)

On any given day, there are about 1,000 tonnes of paper
sludge produced in Ontario and in spite of a growing
body of evidence that it may present health and envi-
ronmental problems, the Ministry of the Environment
has done little but "watch" the situation and will
respond only if there are complaints.

This is because sludge has been determined to be a
'product' rather than 'waste' and is therefore exempt
from regulatory controls. This in spite of the fact that a
report prepared by a panel of experts at the request of
the MOE and released 18 months ago, states it "should
not be used in an uncontrolled manner as an exempt
waste as it is at present".

In December 2004, an auto-wrecking company was
fined $10,000 for violating the Hamilton Conservation
Authority's fill regulations by placing a berm made
from sludge beside Fletcher Creek. Effluent samples
were tested and were found to be 100 per cent fatal to
trout and water fleas. The toxic effluent contained lead,
high levels of feccal streptococci and exceeded the
Provincial Water Quality Standards for e-coli and pH
levels, iron, cobalt, molybdenum, aluminium and cop-
per. That was just one example.

As stated by Niagara Centre MPP Peter Kormos during
question period Monday to Minister of Environment,
Laurel Broten, "The people of Pelham don't want you to
watch, they want you to act". What's the hold-up? 

KN
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.web.net/archives/sludgewatch-l/attachments/20060704/0c556e49/attachment.htm