Sludge Watch ==> Foul! Ontarians object to Rothsay Rendering Plant sludge in landfill

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Now Ontario residents get to gag just the way Truro Nova Scotia residents 
have been gagging for years.... due to Rothsay Rendering Plant sludge.

Rothsay is owned by Maple Leaf Foods. These are the people who have been 
pumping out commercials about how much they care and how they want only the 
very best for your family.

Not these families, apparently.


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




Clark cries foul over dumping of Rothsay sludge
Councillor and ministry clash over legality of animal waste
Richard Leitner, Mountain

(Apr 13, 2007)
Stoney Creek Councillor Brad Clark is vowing to fight an "illogical" 
Ministry of the Environment ruling that the Taro dump can accept 
animal-rendering sewage waste after recent shipments left neighbours gagging 
and heading indoors.

"Since I got here, this was the No. 1 issue all of a sudden," he said. "No 
matter where you went in the community, everyone was talking about the 
smell."

Taro voluntarily halted disposal of foul-smelling sewage sludge from the 
Rothsay animal rendering plant in Flamborough on March 28, when the 
ministry's on-site inspector returned from a two-day training course.

Both Taro's owner, Newalta Industrial Services Inc., and ministry officials 
say the dump is legally permitted to take the waste, but stopped doing so 
because of odour complaints.

Those complaining included Phil Robinson, who moved to the area last year 
and was overcome by the stench while riding his motorcycle on Mud Street.

"You take 50 Johnny-on-the-spots, use them for a year without putting any 
chemical in it and open all the doors, and stand 50 people two feet away 
from it in the dead heat of summer, that's what it smelled like," he said.

"I thought, 'How can people live across the street from this place?' It was 
nasty."

Mr. Clark, who calls the ministry's interpretation of Taro's licence 
conditions "nonsense," said he will take up the matter with Environment 
Minister Laurel Broten and city council.

The site's licence forbids the disposal of "putrescible waste." In his view, 
this clearly includes animal waste undergoing putrefaction -- or 
decomposition -- and emitting putrid odours.

"Putrescible stuff is the stuff that really reeks. There's a clear clause in 
there," Mr. Clark said.

"I don't know how they can possibly argue with any credibility that the 
company is currently in compliance with their (licence)," he said.

"Come and knock on the doors in the community. Go door to door and tell them 
it's OK to take this waste. Tell the neighbours that. There's just no way."

But Mark Dunn, acting district manager for the ministry's Hamilton office, 
said "putrescible waste" traditionally applies to kitchen-type food scraps.

While Taro's licence forbids it from accepting municipal or domestic sewage 
waste, it is silent on commercial and industrial sewage, which means the 
site is allowed to take Rothsay's, he said.

"Is it putrid by the Webster's (dictionary) definition? For sure, that's why 
the neighbours complained that it smelled," Mr. Dunn said.

"But traditionally our definition of putrescible has usually meant things 
like your home-compost-type material, the stuff you'd find in domestic or 
commercial garbage that rots, like kitchen wastes," he said.

"Again, in this case the odour was the issue. We said, 'Guys, this is 
causing a problem. Either you're going to have to find some way of 
addressing the odour or stop receiving it,' and it was decided they would 
stop receiving that material."

Newalta's regional manager, Michael Jovanovic, said Taro had been taking 
"lagoon sludge" from Rothsay for several months, attributing the problem to 
a 17-tonne load received just before shipments were halted.

The severity of the stench only became apparent the next day -- when the 
inspector returned -- and efforts to bury the waste were made more difficult 
because it had been spread over a larger area, he said.

"The change in wind caused it to get away from us," said Mr. Jovanovic, who 
also rejects Mr. Clark's contention that the waste was putrescible and 
therefore barred under Taro's licence.

"It was acceptable quality as far as the environmental quality is concerned, 
but obviously not acceptable from an odour perspective, as we have learned," 
he said.

"We take these operational issues very seriously and we're making sure that 
we don't have this problem recur."

But a First Road West resident who also complained said any time the 
prevailing southwest winds switch direction, the neighbourhood south of Mud 
Street is inundated with odours.

Len Wise estimates he's complained 15 or 16 times in the past year.

"They've been blaming mushroom farms and everybody else that they could 
blame it on except themselves," he said, describing the latest smell as 
"very putrid and very irritating."

A resident in the area for more than 30 years, Mr. Wise said the ministry's 
response is consistent with Taro's controversial history, including its 
approval without public hearings and receipt of hazardous U.S. industrial 
sludge that prompted the province to change the law.

"How many more loopholes do we want to put into this place?" he said, 
questioning how the ministry's on-site inspector can be away for two days 
without a replacement.

"That is absolutely bizarre. OK, you send somebody away for a training 
course, great," he said. "(But) you don't let the site operate without that. 
That's the only protection we've got."

http://www.hamiltonmountainnews.com/hmn/news/news_763465.html