Sludge Watch ==> Toronto sludge not going to London landfill any time soon -

[Maureen Reilly]

London Free Press . Ontario . Canada
       Tues July 4, 2006

      Toronto Trash not coming to London - for now    

        
No need to start holding your breath - or your nose. 

Toronto's trash isn't likely to land on London's doorstep. At least not for a while yet. 

Last week's announcement that the Green Lane Environmental landfill just west of London will have its capacity doubled prompted fears the site will soon become home to Toronto's prodigious output of waste. 

Toronto now ships its garbage to Michigan, where officials are talking about closing the border. 

The Green Lane announcement by Environment Minister Laurel Broten triggered the speculation. 

Not so fast, agree Green Lane and city of Toronto officials. Nothing, they insist, is a done deal. 

In fact, Toronto trash will continue to be trucked past London to its final resting place in Michigan because the deal that expires in 2010 is just too good. 

Even Green Lane owner Bob McCaig, who could profit from Toronto's waste, agrees. 

Toronto pays a tipping fee of $13 a tonne in Michigan but McCaig's 130-hectare operation charges $66 a tonne. And Toronto has exported 850,000 tonnes this past year. 

That amount will begin dropping Aug. 1 when Toronto must find another destination for biosolids - sewage sludge. The Michigan site will no longer accept the sludge, of which Toronto produces 150,000 tonnes annually. 

Toronto officials are negotiating with landfill operators to accept the goo, but McCaig said he isn't interested. 

McCaig said he needs four tonnes of dry material with each tonne of biosolids to soak it up and Toronto has declined to send that necessary "sponge." 

"There are no negotiations at this point in time," he said. "I know they would like me to take the 150,000 tonnes. I'd like to be able to do it, but I can't." 

Tenders for the biosolids contract close July 18. 

In Toronto, city councillor Shelley Carroll is chair of council's works committee, which administers solid-waste collection. She's been looking for a replacement for the Michigan arrangement after it expires. 

Carroll said expansion of Green Lane's capacity does not guarantee Toronto will pick Green Lane, even though it could accommodate 10 years of Toronto waste. 

"We see the expansion of Green Lane as really an expansion of the landfill market in general in Ontario," she said. "We see it as a negotiation opening. We weren't looking for the province to designate a site and say it all goes there." 

Carroll said Toronto intends to keep shipping waste to Michigan under the current contract: "It's a very affordable situation. We've worked out very agreeable contracts for the forseeable future." 

Carroll said it would be unwise to say Green Lane is Toronto's preferred landfill because other sites are expecting capacity increases and she's reluctant to undermine future negotiations. 

"We are dealing with private interests here," she said. "These are privately owned landfills." 

Meanwhile, Toronto officials continue to seek an immediate home for the sewage sludge at which McCaig has turned up his nose. 



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