Sludge Watch ==> Rural Ontario Unwilling to take Toronto Sludge

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Rural municipalities are biting their nails ... ready to defend their lands 
and landfills against Toronto sewage sludge.  Toronto - Canada's largest 
city and  great hulking irresponsible polluter- has failed to convince 
farmers to smear it on the soil, and - in a mere 60 days - will be refused 
further use of the Carleton landfill in Michigan.

Towns around Southern Ontario are saying 'No Way Jose' to Toronto's putrid 
poo.  I am getting a rash of calls and emails like this one...
........................................................
Hi,

Pardon me for being so abrupt.  You asked where will Toronto stick their 
sludge?  They SHOULD stick it in their own backyards, or in the backyards of 
the decision makers/politicians  in Toronto/Ontario, or at the doorstep of 
Queen's Park.

Sorry for venting Maureen.  I truly believe that when Aug 1st arrives our 
provincial gov't will pull out an approval from their back pocket to allow 
Toronto's sludge to be disposed of  in rural Ontario landfill sites.  You 
know more about this than I do and may disagree; however, the MOE/gov't 
hasn't supported us in the past, and I don't believe they will in the 
future.

In the meantime, your information should(and perhaps it already is) be 
circulated to AMO so they can take the necessary precautions to inform the 
Province that rural municipalities will not take Toronto's sludge.

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

So really, where will the sludge go on August 1st?  Ontario towns will not 
welcome it into their landfills.  Many are not engineered to take this type 
of waste, anyway.   It is dewatered 'cake' (looks like an oily black shiny 
tar) at about 26% solids.  It has an astonishingly foul odor that ripens 
after only a few hours of storage.  It has had very little digestion time.  
Toronto has often failed to meet the less than 2,000,000 fecal coliform per 
gram requirements for stabilization.  And the digester time has also 
frequently been less than 15 days.  The smell is so bad it has caused 
respiratory distress in infants .

(see letter from Medical Officer of Health
http://www.solidwastemag.com/PostedDocuments/PDFs/Lipsett.pdf )

That poor level of disinfection and poor stabilization doesn't endear it to 
anyone...but the regulators seem indifferent.

So now what?  Toronto will look around Michigan and New York for another 
landfill. Could be a hard sell after this publicity and lawsuits.  They will 
look for a thermal solution, but most thermal plants run at capacity.  They 
will look for private landfill space in Ontario.  Then they will  
undoubtedly phone the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and plead with 
them to change the wording on some waste permits to allow them to admit 
Toronto sludge.

The staff at the Ministry are not amused.  In Ontario, cities are 
responsible for managing their wastes. It is Toronto's responsibilty to 
manage trash and sludge.  But Toronto has consistently ducked their own 
waste management.  The are the 400 pound gorilla of the Province. (You know 
the joke: "Where does a 400 lb gorilla make its nest?  Aaaaanywhere it 
wants....).

In the 1980s when they needed a landfill they let a private company get the 
permits for the Keele Valley landfill and then bought it.  Then they sat 
back and watched it fill up without finding a replacement.  So the convoy of 
140 trucks leave Toronto, wait in line for Customs and Immigration at the 
border ..and dump the trash and sludge into Michigan land fills.  Sludge is 
15% of Toronto's landfill waste stream.  I hear its 30 trucks of sludge per 
day.

Rural Ontario isn't looking for that kind of traffic into their community.

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


http://www.therecord.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=record/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1149285038104&call_pageid=1024322085509&col=1024322199564

Region won't take Toronto sludge


WATERLOO REGION (Jun 3, 2006)

Regional Chair Ken Seiling is not concerned that Toronto needs somewhere 
else to dispose of its sewer sludge, with a Michigan landfill poised to 
close its gates.

He expects Toronto can find a private landfill in Ontario.

The region's landfill in Waterloo is not licensed to take Toronto sludge and 
will not open its gates, Seiling said.

Local sewer sludge is spread on fields, after treatment. It does not go into 
the landfill.

"I certainly wouldn't want to open the door to letting other things into the 
landfill that we're not used to handling, and could create potential 
problems for us," Seiling said.

Toronto could spread sewer sludge on local fields with provincial and 
landowner approval, said Dave Andrews, manager of wastewater operations for 
regional government.

Regional approval for such spreading would not be required.

Seiling is confident the provincial government will not force this region to 
open its landfill site to Toronto sludge.