Sludge Watch ==> Toronto Officials Scrambling - rural residents don't want the sludge either

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sludgewatch Admin:

I know that the Ontario Ministry of the Environment already has an Emergency 
Order that would permit Toronto trash to be put into rural landfills. In 
other words, while these rural landfills don't normally allow Toronto trash 
there is an Order that could force them to take it.

It seems that such an Order may be an instrument the Ontario government will 
use to put sludge in rural landfills.  In this event, rural residents in 
Ontario will be just as unhappy as Carleton landfill residents!


You see, even though Toronto Works staffers had wanted to replace Toronto's 
antique sludge incinerator with a robust state of the art facility 15 years 
ago, a gang of neighbors to the treatment plant started driving a no 
-incineration agenda.  They got the pro sludge gang at the EPA to give them 
the language of 'beneficial use'.  The community committee toured European 
facilities with Toronto Works staff  and then struck a deal with the City 
.... if the City will stop incineration the local residents will declare 
that land application of sewage sludge is next to godliness.

And then they pushed the City to speed up the closure of the old 
incinerator...the one the staff wanted keep just in case of 
emergencies...like this one.  And the citizens pushed the Province to ignore 
the environmental impact of land application of sludge in the Environmental 
Assessment of the Ashbridges Bay sewage treatment plant.

And no one asked the farm organizations or the consumer if they were ok with 
taking on Toronto's mixture of fecal and industrials wastes on their fields 
and foods.    The sludging was off to a slow start...and then Walkerton hit. 
  Thousands of people seriously ill from drinking water contaminated with 
ecoli 0157 and camylobactor jejeuni.  Seven dead.  Helicoptors airlifting 
the sick and the dying from the small town of Walkerton, two hours drive 
north east of Toronto...

People who didn't like sludge really had reason not to like it now.

Toronto had to start shipping sludge to Michigan.  The 'i' word 
(incineration) became a form of curse.  No one could suggest 
incineration....or gassification, or pyrolysis,  or even a little heating.  
Any heating results in death according to this school of thought.  
Apparently wholesale rural contamination is preferable to urban management 
of urban waste... So the sludge that was supposed to be Toronto's gift to 
farmers never went over big.  Remember the smell?  The little grandaughter 
of Enid Lipsett sent repeatedly to hospital in respiratory distress and 
diarrhea from sludge related illness?  The dead people in Walkerton?

And the pelletizer. The one that says they are making fertilizer but produce 
pellets that are too variable to sell as fertilizer...the nutrient levels 
are too disparate...one day they will fail to fertilize at the recommended 
application rate, next time they could kill your plants from over 
application.  Oh...and the spontaneous combustion of the material in 
storage, and no one wants to buy them ...but that ok, because it would be 
illegal to sell them.  Don't forget the high levels of contaminants in the 
pellets (ie copper at 1,650 ppm) and low levels of nutrient.  So why is 
Toronto paying $30 million dollars to make their sludge into dull  grey 
marbles?  These pellets will need a  Certificate of Approval (permit) for 
disposa if they ever get around to finishing rebuilding the pellet plant 
after it burned down.

Toronto isn't the only city with problems getting their sludge on the land.  
This is Canada. Short growing season, long winter.  Can't spread on frozen 
or snowy ground. Not on saturated ground. Not with a standing crop.  Not in 
the fall when there is no crop to take up the nutrients.  So even if farmers 
wanted sludge...they would all need it in about the week between spring thaw 
and planting time.  This is not feasible.  And now Ontario farmers are in a 
sludge strike...having had rural issues ignored, they finally have found a 
way to make Ontario pay attention.  And how.

Many of the municipalities in Southern Ontario are shipping their sludge 
into the USA.  Having bowed to a handfull of noisy luddites, having failed 
to plan for their trash and sludge needs, the crap is back to bite us.

More soon.




Officials scrambling to find home for sludge
As of Aug. 1, Michigan landfill will reject the city's daily truckloads of 
sewage muck
JENNIFER LEWINGTON

CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

Toronto is scrambling to find new sites for its smelly sewage sludge after 
yesterday's surprise news that a Michigan landfill will no longer take the 
city's daily shipments of 13-15 trucks, as of Aug. 1.

Despite the short notice -- barely two months -- and past difficulties in 
finding a home for the human sewage processed at Toronto's water-treatment 
plants, city officials said they are not panicking.

"It's premature to be going ballistic, but I know people love to," said 
Councillor Shelley Carroll (Don Valley East), chairwoman of the city's works 
committee. "There is a challenge and we will have to work awfully hard for 
60 solid days, but I think it is solvable."

In essence, the city will have to find other sites, likely in Ontario, to 
take the 160,000 tonnes a year of the treated sludge, which represents about 
15 per cent of all Toronto waste shipped to Michigan.

But the search for alternative sites in Ontario is sure to trigger political 
reaction from nearby communities with landfills.

Yesterday, city officials received word from Carleton Farms that the 
Michigan landfill site, owned by Republic Services, will not accept sewage 
sludge from Toronto and other customers starting Aug. 1.

The decision has no bearing on Toronto's current contract with Republic to 
transport about 80 trucks a day of garbage (the amount not diverted to 
recycling) to the Michigan landfill just west of Detroit.

Matt Neely, Michigan president of Republic, said the decision is tied to 
mounting complaints from neighbours about the odorous sludge sent to 
Carleton Farm. Republic is currently seeking State of Michigan approval to 
expand the permitted acreage for landfill to 403 acres from 388 acres at 
present.

"The outstanding odour issues would impact the ability to achieve the 
expansion," Mr. Neely said, adding that Carleton Farm has negotiated "in 
principle" the terms of the proposed expansion. He said notification of the 
cut-off date for receiving the sludge went out yesterday to all customers, 
including Toronto, Windsor and municipalities in Michigan. Toronto accounts 
for about one-third of the sewage volume received by the landfill site.

Since the city received word only yesterday, Ms. Carroll said "we are 
exploring all our options." One issue under review is any legal 
ramifications from the decision.

Given the constant political threats that Michigan might ban all imports of 
garbage, Toronto officials say they have been working on strategies to find 
alternatives.

"It may not be that big of an issue if we can secure other sites," said Lou 
Di Gironimo, general manager of Toronto water. "We have some time to look 
for other opportunities, and I am confident we will be able to find some 
short-term options."

But he concedes the city has no firm guarantee yet of new sites by Aug. 1. 
"We will know better in a couple of weeks," he said.

Ms. Carroll said the city and the province have been in continuing 
discussions about contingencies should the border close to garbage from 
Canada.

But she said Toronto, in deference to a provincial request, has not revealed 
the landfill sites with known capacity to take city garbage and sewage 
sludge sent to Michigan.

"The time is coming where we will have to talk about where it is going to 
go, and so we will," Ms. Carroll said.

Toronto has a stated goal of diverting all waste now sent to Michigan by 
2010.