Sludge Watch ==> Toronto goes to court to force Republic Services to find them sludge disposal

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sludgewatch Admin:

This is fascinating.  The Michigan Dept of Environmental Quality has given 
the Carleton Farms landfill in Michigan an order to stop taking sludge (any 
sludge - Toronto, Detroit, every sludge) due to odour problems.  So the 
landfill owner gives Toronto 60 days notice to find some other disposal.
So a few days before that deadline (Aug 1st) Toronto files legal papers 
looking for an Ontario judge who will order the landfill to continue to take 
it...or find another disposal site.

What?


AS if that situation is not absurd enough... there..at the end of the 
story... is that rascally paper sludge hauler - Courtice Auto Wreckers aka 
Ontario Disposal - saying that they can take 500 tonnes of Toronto sewage 
sludge a day because they have landfills and transfer stations and places to 
put it?  Where?  Good Lord, please don't tell me Toronto sewage sludge is 
going to go on top of  the Pelham paper sludge berms?


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


www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060728.SLUDGE28/TPStory/TPNational/Ontario/



Court battle looms over city's sludge
Toronto will attempt to force Republic to help it find alternative disposal 
site

JENNIFER LEWINGTON

CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

Toronto is going to court to force a Michigan landfill owner to help the 
city find a new home for its treated human sewage after Aug. 1.

The surprise legal move, scheduled for today in Ontario Superior Court, 
could have wider political fallout with U.S. legislators already unhappy 
about taking Toronto sludge and garbage.

No immediate decision is expected from the court action, but it is occurring 
just days before Tuesday's deadline for the city to find alternative sites 
for its sewage sludge, now shipped to a Detroit-area landfill owned by 
Republic Services.

Last May, citing an environmental order from the state of Michigan, Republic 
served notice it would not take sludge from any cities, including Toronto, 
after Aug. 1. Since then, city officials have been scrambling to find new 
locations for about 14 trucks a day of sludge.

Despite court documents filed by the city that claim "dire and irreparable 
harm" if Republic is not forced to keep taking the sludge, works committee 
chair Shelley Carroll said yesterday that deals are imminent to secure sites 
in Canada.

"We are down to the wire, but today is not the wire," she said.

Environmentalist Maureen Reilly of Sludgewatch, a critic of city practices 
concerning sludge disposal, says the court action could add to negative 
perceptions of Toronto.

"The city already has a reputation for putting its waste on to communities 
that don't really want it because they [Toronto] have failed to plan and 
manage their own waste stream," she said.

But Ms. Carroll defended the city's legal move.

"We have to explore all our options," she said, arguing that Republic has an 
obligation to find alternative sites for the sludge.

However, court documents make clear a basic disagreement over what, if any, 
obligations Republic has to take Toronto's sludge.

In an affidavit sworn this week, Republic Services area vice-president Matt 
Neely stated his company has "never disposed of biosolids generated by the 
city under any contractual relationship." Instead, the landfill receives 
sludge delivered from several cities, including Toronto.

But an affidavit sworn by Lou DiGironimo, the city's general manager of 
water, maintains that an existing contract with Republic includes a 
provision for the company to redirect the sludge to another of its Michigan 
landfills.

Meanwhile, an affidavit filed by an official with Ontario Disposal says the 
city has ignored his company's overture to take Toronto's sludge. "The 
granting of an injunction is completely unnecessary as the City of Toronto 
has alternative suppliers," says Chris Pettus.