Sludge Watch ==> Toronto's Stinky Situation -" looking for the garbage fairy"

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

http://www.torontosun.com/Comment/Commentary/2006/06/07/1618295.html


Toronto Sun Editorial


Wed, June 7, 2006

Toronto's stinky situation



So, which lucky Ontario municipality (or municipalities) would like to have 
the honour and privilege of accepting 15 truckloads a day of Toronto's ... 
uh ... sewage sludge?

Unfortunately, the Michigan dump we're shipping it to now -- along with the 
rest of our trash -- doesn't want it as of Aug. 1 because it ... er ... 
stinks.

After all, sewage sludge is another name for human waste, and while it's 
treated before it leaves Toronto, hey, it's still human waste.

Through no fault of Toronto's own (because really, what ever is?) our city 
council has had no backup plan for disposing of our garbage ever since it 
scrapped the Adams Mine dumpsite six years ago, apparently believing that at 
the appropriate moment the "garbage fairy" would appear, wave her magic 
wand, and whisk Toronto's trash away.

Meanwhile, Toronto has been trucking all its trash to Michigan, including 
the sludge, and hoping to divert -- insert hysterical laughter here -- 100% 
of its waste stream by 2010.


This goal is rather, ahem, optimistic, particularly since Mayor David Miller 
and his backers on council are not big fans of modern incineration, either.

The Michigan dump, Carleton Farms, owned by Republic Services, surprised the 
city last week when it gave it two month's notice that it will no longer 
accept Toronto's sewage sludge.

While it will still take the rest of our garbage, delivered by 80 trucks a 
day, Michigan legislators have passed a law to close their border to our 
garbage completely.

It requires federal approval and is stuck in the U.S. Congress for now.

All of which still leaves Miller and co. with an immediate headache about 
where to ship our sludge, and a longer term one about where to put the rest 
of our trash.

And that could turn Premier Dalton McGuinty into a very unhappy garbage 
fairy.

He could end up having to mediate the huge brawl that will erupt if and when 
Toronto announces which Ontario dump (or dumps) it wants to send the city's 
sewage sludge to after Aug. 1, and people in those communities 
understandably go berserk.

At that point, the political stink over this issue could become even bigger 
than the real one.