Sludge Watch ==> Ontario-will the sludge come back-thought it was goner-will the sludge come back

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060614/METRO01/606140359/1003/METRO


Detroit News
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 14, 2006

Sludge delivery to landfill halted

Sumpter Township site agrees, for now, to stop accepting human waste in an 
expanded facility.

Joel Kurth / The Detroit News

The parade of human waste to one of Michigan's largest landfills will soon 
cease, but may resume under a controversial deal reached with state 
regulators.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality inked a compromise with 
Carleton Farms landfill this week allowing its owners to expand by 68 acres 
to nearly 500 acres. In return, the Sumpter Township site must stop 
accepting sludge -- a common name for treated sewage, which is the source of 
thousands of odor complaints -- by Aug. 1.

A caveat buried in the deal, though, is cause for concern among neighbors. 
It allows dump owner Republic Services of Michigan to resume shipments of 
sewage after November if it makes improvements to stifle the stench.

"We're all waiting for the fine print," said Jack Wyman, 71, who lives about 
a mile from the dump in nearby Huron Township. "Are they going to make sure 
all the hundreds of trucks coming in and out of there every day don't smell? 
How do they do that?"

Earlier this month, Carleton Farms spokesman Will Flower said the dump 
voluntarily gave up multimillion-dollar contracts with Downriver communities 
and the cities of Detroit, Windsor and Toronto to be good neighbors. In 
fact, the state required an end to the sludge as part of the deal.

Republic Services won't provide specifics, but it's believed the dump took 
as much as 360,000 tons a year. The dump still accepts all household waste 
from Toronto, nearly 1 million tons per year.

"The good news is this deal should solve the odor problems for the 
community," said Bob McCann, a spokesman for the DEQ.

"It's going to take a lot of work and extensive improvements for them to 
even attempt to accept more sludge in the future."

McCann said regulators had no choice but to approve the expansion. The added 
land is already part of state and Wayne County trash plans, and Michigan law 
only allows regulators to nix expansions if there are outstanding issues 
such as odors.

McCann and Democratic lawmakers said the episode underscores the need for a 
proposed ban on landfill expansions that has been blocked by Republicans.

Another six dumps have filed paperwork to grow. Overall, 19 percent of trash 
buried in Michigan last fiscal year came from Canada.

"These landfills already have enough capacity," said state Rep. Kathy 
Angerer, D-Dundee.

"They're tearing up roads, stinking up neighborhoods and the people have 
spoken. They don't want it anymore."

You can reach Joel Kurth at (313) 222-2610 or jkurth at detnews.com.