Sludge Watch ==> Star Editorial - Politicians in Denial over Toronto Garbage

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Politicians in denial over Toronto garbage
Jun. 11, 2006. 01:00 AM


One hundred big-rig trucks thundering to Michigan each day may not seem a 
fragile way to dispose of Toronto's garbage. But this controversial 
cross-border movement of our trash is vulnerable to even the slightest 
pressure.

Underlining that frailty, complaints from Michigan residents upset by foul 
smells recently forced a U.S. landfill operator to announce it will stop 
taking Toronto's sewer sludge.

About 15 of the 100 garbage trucks making the daily run from Toronto carry 
this foul slurry of concentrated toilet residue. And the city must find some 
place to ship it before an Aug. 1 deadline set by Republic Services, the 
Michigan landfill operator. The company says it will continue to accept 
other Toronto trash.

But for how much longer?

The brusque termination of sewage sludge deliveries is happening with only a 
two-month warning. That shows the danger of being dependent on a tenuous, 
cross-border channel for getting rid of waste.

Lacking suitable disposal sites for the trash they generate, cities and 
businesses across Ontario send almost 4 million tonnes of rubbish to 
Michigan each year. Residents of that state have become increasingly fed up. 
And there is a steady, growing and powerful movement to ban Canadian garbage 
convoys.

If those trucks were stopped, Ontario's waste transfer stations could hold 
the flow for two days before becoming overwhelmed. Garbage would very likely 
have to be piled in parks, fields and parking lots — wherever possible. And 
that could trigger a public health crisis.

Despite this risk, provincial and municipal officials remain in a state of 
denial.

Defenders of the status quo argue the flow across the border is secure 
because Michigan landfill operators are bound by contracts forcing them to 
take our waste or find a place to put it.

Mayor David Miller said last week those terms apply to sewer sludge, 
explaining that it remains Republic's responsibility to get rid of this 
waste. The company takes a different view of the contract, saying it has no 
obligation to accept sludge.

Raising denial to a new level, Miller noted that Toronto's sewer slurry is 
actually a useful commodity in landfills because this festering sludge 
speeds decomposition when mixed with other trash.

But legal claims and musings about landfill chemistry miss the point. People 
near a dump won't accept sewer sludge as a gift, no matter what its benefit.

And having a good case to argue in a contract dispute, which could take 
years to get through court, would be of scant comfort if borders closed and 
the city choked on garbage.

Politicians must take firm steps to deal with a looming trash crisis.

Fortunately, some regions in the Greater Toronto Area are already poised to 
move ahead.

York and Durham have teamed up on a proposed incinerator for their trash. It 
would generate enough energy, as a by-product, to power thousands of homes.

The incinerator issue goes before the elected council in each region within 
the next two weeks. It deserves approval.

Protections are in place. New technologies have made burning trash a far 
cleaner process than in the past. And rules require that such a facility be 
far from residential areas and away from prime farmland.

Incineration is not the only answer. A robust commitment to recycling and 
composting is important. And some trash will always need to go to a landfill 
site, preferably one within Ontario.

But officials in York and Durham are on the right track.

Incineration should have a role in disposing of at least some of our 
rubbish. Toronto city council should end its denial and seriously consider 
this approach.

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

Sludgewatch Admin:

There are several developments in managing Toronto and Southern Ontario 
sludges as biomass fuel.
One is a proposal to bring a biomass plant to the Dundalk area where Toronto 
and Hamilton sludges are causing huge local controversy from land 
application.  But this plant is still essentially a handshake agreement 
between some municipal officials and a proponent, a twinkle in the eye, and 
has not started along the road to a Provincial permit.

Closer to realization is the Hamilton based Liberty Energy proposal ....  a 
10 MW energy facility to utilize sludge and wood as a biomass energy plant 
which is awaiting Ministry of Environment approval, although it is supposed 
to be on the green renewable energy fast track.

http://www.libertyenergycentre.ca/

The Michigan landfill that is the disposal destination for Toronto, Owen 
Sound, and Windsor sludges will close its doors to sludge in 50 days, 
leaving most of Ontario's sewer wastes, about 190,000 tonnes per annum of 
it, with no place to go.

Smaller municipalities around Ontario are horrified by the prospect that 
Toronto sludge may try to gain access to their landfills and one after the 
other, they are issuing press releases to that effect.
Ontario farmers are staging a sludge boycott, frustrated by years of 
depressed prices and border closures.

Despite this crisis in sludge management, the Province of Ontario has been 
stalling on expediting the permits for the state of the art Liberty Energy 
facility, choosing to keep open the filthy coal fired energy plants while it 
forces the proposed modern biomass plant to do more studies. Hard to believe 
- despite the sludge crisis - the sludge biomass plant is being held up.

Toronto's politicians, including Mayor Miller continue to be in 
cloud-cuckoo-land about the sludge issue.  They were told that sludge is 
'good for a landfill'.   Sewage sludge isn't 'good for a landfill'.
The putrescing sludge cake is very odiforous and can cause problems with the 
neighbours.  As it decomposes it can mobilize other toxins and heavy metals 
from the trash into the leachate. It can promote liner failure...leading to 
groundwater contamination.  Those landfill operators who are successfully 
managing their own communities' trash - do not want to have the management 
of their landfills compromised with Toronto's sludge...just because of 
Toronto's arrogant failure to plan and manage their wastes.

Here is the staff memo to Ontario politicians.  Note how it suggests that 
the orphaned sludge will go to 100 percent 'beneficial use' - code for land 
application.  But oddly, the memo makes no mention of the province- wide 
farmer sludge boycott.  Read the City website on biosolids and it talks 
proudly about moving from 50% to 100% beneficial use of biosolids.  That 
means rural land application.

What the Works staff  forget to mention is that at 50% 'beneficial use' 
(read land app) the program had an 80% failure rate...little farm interest 
in sludge meant it headed off to the default disposal - Michigan landfill.   
In the face of this program failure, Toronto went on to claim to its 
politicians
" now we are going to '100% beneficial use' "(and the rabble clapped their 
chapped hands) .... But by that time even fewer farms would accept sludge.  
So Toronto's '100 percent beneficial use program' had a 96 % failure 
rate...the sludge was essentially all going to USA landfills across the 
border.

The Toronto staff don't like the politicians to get a big dose of sludge 
realities.  And the urban screamin' meemies east of Ashbridges Bay prefer to 
delude the politicians with nonsense about how Toronto sludge is a gift to 
rural communities but intolerable and unthinkable for their own. So they 
also fill the ear of the politicians with sweet sounding 'recycling' 
messages - when the reality is there is no 'fertilizer' market for Toronto 
sludge.

Deferring to urban residents keen to polish their homes - bought cheap in 
the lea of industrial lands - into more gentrified properties, the City has 
flung its dung on rural communities who are now fighting back...whether they 
are Ontario farmers, Ontario landfills, and now Michigan landfills.

York Durham is expanding their sludge incinerator, the Lakeshore facility is 
building a brand new clean fluidized bed sludge facility, Peel looks after 
its own sludge without land application and there is the proposed Liberty 
Energy site in Hamilton.

When, oh when, will Toronto look after its own sludge?

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


Memo to Toronto municipal councillors from the Toronto City Works staff:


May 31, 2006
Carleton Farms Landfill to cease accepting biosolids

Issue:

•	On May 31, 2006, Republic Services Inc. (owner and operator of Carleton 
Farms Landfill), the company in Michigan that receives biosolids from the 
City, informed us they would not be accepting wastewater biosolids as of 
August 1, 2006.

Key Messages:

•	In the short term, the City is working to identify potential contingency 
options including other landfill sites.

•	We are exploring our contractual agreement with Republic to determine our 
rights.

•	In the interim, Council has approved two projects.  The first is the 
release of a Request for Expression of Interest for Beneficial Use of 
Biosolids.  The second is the release of a Request for Proposals looking for 
contingency Ontario-based landfill sites, in conjunction with Solid Waste, 
in the event of border disruptions.

•	This decision does not affect the City’s contract for solid waste disposal 
in Michigan.

Background:

•	Currently, the City sends 160,000 wet tonnes of biosolids per year to 
Michigan landfill.

•	The landfill management of biosolids is governed by the Solid Waste 
Transport and Disposal Agreement between the City and Republic Services Inc. 
(Republic).

•	The City also has an operating contract with Terratec Environmental for 
the agricultural land application program and they have been the contractor 
since the program commenced in 1996.  The terms of the contract require that 
Terratec take responsibility for all necessary approvals and permits for 
both the hauling operations and the agricultural sites receiving biosolids.  
The company is also responsible for hauling biosolids to landfill locations.

•	When the City is not land applying, approximately 15 trucks a day 
transport biosolids cake to Republic landfill in Michigan for management.