Sludge Watch ==> "This is just not right" Ontario Pelham residents Angry about Paper Sludge

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

www.wellandtribune.ca web

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Welland Tribune

'This is just not right'  - Residents not happy over material used to build 
berm

ALLAN BENNER

Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 09:00

Local News - Rural Pelham seemed like an ideal community to retire in for 
Thelma Poolsaar and her husband Lou.

"We wake up every morning and ask, 'Could this be a better retirement?'" she 
said.

For the most part, they've been "as happy as can be. The people around here 
are so friendly. We love it. The last thing we want to do is move."

But recently, the idea of leaving behind their cherished home in the country 
has crossed their minds.

For more than a month, a material called Sound-Sorb has been piled at 325 
Church St. to form a berm between greenhouses on the property and a rail 
line.

It's a product composed of paper fibre biosolids - produced as a byproduct 
of the paper recycling industry - mixed with mineral oil. At first, area 
residents thought it was part of some unknown construction project.

"We noticed it was there, but didn't pay much attention because I thought it 
was gravel," said Diana DeVries who lives down the road from the berm.

When it started to stink, residents started to worry.

Sound Sorb, however, is not a material that is regulated by the MOE for use 
on agricultural-zoned property.

But many of the residents aren't buying that assessment.

Something that smells that bad can't be healthy, Poolsaar said, Monday, as 
the stench from the pile of material wafted over her.

"Too bad you can't can that so people can smell what I'm talking about," she 
said.

Randy Desnoyers knows what Poolsaar's talking about.

"I came out here one day when the wind was blowing toward us," he said. "It 
was like, 'Wow, how the hell can you guys breathe out here?'"

That smell, as well as uncertainty about the material, brought dozens of 
protesters from throughout Pelham to the Church Street property, Monday 
morning carrying signs saying, "Absolutely no sludge in Pelham, Go home."

DeVries said getting public support for the problem was easy once people 
realized what has been happening over the past six weeks.

By 10 that morning, the seventh transport trucks loaded with the material 
rolled into the property. Neighbouring residents say at least 30 truck loads 
a day arrive there. Each of those trucks could be carrying as much as 25 
tonnes of the material. That works out to 22,500 tonnes piled there - and 
that pile of material is growing daily.

A few years ago, an expert panel was asked by the Ministry of the 
Environment to study the use of Sound-Sorb for the building of berms.

In January, 2005, that panel recommended that the substance should be 
"controlled by Certificates of Approval or legal instruments that provide 
equal or better protection for human health and the environment at all 
stages from its generation through transport, composting and final use in 
the construction of berms."

But 18 months later, the recommendations yet to be acted on.

"This is just not right," DeVries said. "You shouldn't be able to dump this 
stuff."

The neighbours fear the material could contaminate ground water, and they've 
already noticed yellowish and black liquids near the base of the berm. 
During the protest, jars of the liquids, as well as the Sound-Sorb material, 
were displayed on a picnic table.

Desnoyers said the Ministry of the Environment knows by "it's own reports 
that it is a contamination issue... The MOE should step up to the plate. It 
is a contamination issue. It should be declared as a waste product."

He said the impact of groundwater contamination is already evident in a 
nearby pond.

"There's a pond here in the front and there are fish dying in it all ready."

The contamination, he added, also makes its way into the Welland River via a 
few creeks in the area.

But DeVries said groundwater contamination is only part of her fears.

"The worst part of it all is once it starts rotting, you've got e-coli 
spores, you've got mold spores," she said - adding those spores could become 
airborne.

Ideally, DeVries said the neighbours would like to see the pile removed, 
although they doubt that will ever happen. But at least, she said they want 
to stop any more of the material from being dumped there, and to ensure that 
the existing pile of material is safe.

Area members of provincial parliament Tim Hudak and Peter Kormos also teamed 
up to get the MOE involved.

Monday, Hudak sent a letter to Environment Minister Laurel Broten calling on 
the government to investigate the issue.

"I ask, Minister, that you immediately investigate the odour, leakage, and 
truck traffic complaints," Hudak wrote.

"Furthermore, I ask you to put the ministry's full resources into 
determining how the environment can be best protected in this situation, 
including new regulations if necessary."

Kormos also raised the issue in the provincial legislature, Monday. "You 
know about paper sludge. It contains significant concentrations of 
acrylamide polymer - a known animal carcinogen, as well as total petroleum 
hydrocarbons along with other contaminants," Kormos said. He then asked the 
minister to intervene and stop the dumping in Pelham, and "immediately 
require hydrogeological monitoring of the dump site your own expert panel 
recommended over 18 months ago?"

The reply, Kormos added, was not favourable.

"Our government favours taking a science-based approach to the assessment of 
the material and a precautionary approach," Broten replied. "The ministry 
regularly inspects sites where the material are being placed and at the 
ministry's urging, ground water monitoring wells are being installed on some 
of the sites where the proximity of water is evident and any odour and dust 
problems are promptly being required to be responded to."

She later added that the government's actions were "exactly consistent" with 
the recommendations of the expert panel.

"They said to take a science-based approach, and they said that we did not 
need to ban the material, but we had to take precautions," Broten said.

She said the ministry tested the berm for 90 chemicals and bacteria and 
determined they didn't pose a significant risk to the environment or human 
health.

She also said the government is "watching" the situation in Pelham "very 
closely."

Kormos later expressed his disappointment in her reply.

"It's particularly naive on her part to talk about watching. First of all 
there's no evidence that there's been anyone watching, because there's just 
been truckload after truckload after truckload," he said.

Meanwhile, he said the ministry's own report says it should require at least 
a certificate of approval.

"It is unregulated waste - and that's what it is, it's waste. The only 
inference that can be drawn is that the government specifically excludes it 
from regulated waste because of the incredible pressure that's already on 
landfill sites."

A year ago, John O'Toole, a Progressive Conservative MPP from Durham county 
introduced a motion to amend the Environmental Protection Act to require 
that a person obtain a certificate of approval before they can spread or 
store sewage sludge, other biosolids and products derived from them.

That bill has yet to be approved.

In his riding, he said the use of the product has also caused problems 
"that's what precipitated me to bring in a private member's bill," he said.

"It seemed like there were no tools to bring any objective analysis to it."