Sludge Watch ==> Opposition Mounts to Paper Sludge - Ontario

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch:

Yoohoo!  Ontario Government...!
Yes .... You!

You who pulled together a scientific/medical panel to review this use of 
paper sludge.
You who promised us in opposition to manage this paper sludge as the waste 
that it is.
Yes, you, Minister Broten. You Minister Dombrowsky.

Put a stop to this.  Your experts told you to stop it.
You haven't listened to them yet.

Just who are you listening to?
... remember....the voters will be voting in October.

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

Opposition mounts to man-made berms; As piles of paper sludge pop up around 
Ontario, environmental concerns follow

Matthew Van Dongen  /  Osprey News Network; St. Catharines Standard
Local News - Wednesday, August 15, 2007 @ 00:00

They told Lloyd Climenhage it was safe.

That it wasn't a water quality hazard.

That the smell would disappear.

A year later, the 36,000-tonne mountain of recycled-paper sludge across the 
street from Climenhage's home still stinks when it's wet.

In the rain, contaminated runoff still leaks into a nearby ditch leading to 
a municipal drain.

And Ontario's Ministry of the Environment is still struggling to persuade 
the landowner to make the pile safe.

Climenhage and his neighbours feared such a result when recycler Abitibi 
Consolidated paid a contractor to construct a paper-sludge berm to serve as 
a sound barrier at the Fenwick farm last summer. Fenwick is about 25 
kilometres west of Niagara Falls.

He's not happy to be proved right.

"It's vindication for us, I suppose, but frustrating, too," said Climenhage.

"We said these things would happen, and they did happen. But it doesn't seem 
like very much is being done to fix the problem," Climenhage said.

Similar berms have riled neighbours in Oshawa, Orillia, Flamborough, Port 
Colborne and the Peterborough area.

There could be more than 30 across the province, but no one officially keeps 
track.

Abitibi maintains that the sludge, mostly water and paper fibres mixed with 
sand, is inert and environmentally safe when piled and covered.

So does the new owner of the Church Street property in Fenwick where the 
berm is located, who believes environmental concerns are overblown.


However, tests of berm runoff have proved it is dangerous to the 
environment. Local ministry staff have equated the liquid's toxicity to 
sewage.

The ministry has ordered the owner to repair a clay wall designed to protect 
against runoff and to cover the berm with soil and grass. It's the third 
time the ministry has ordered that the property be made safe. So far, two 
property owners have been unable to accomplish it.

The ministry recently launched an investigation into why the repairs haven't 
been done, said acting local branch manager Rich Vickers.

Owner Dirk Breugem said the repairs should be done in a week or two. "I'll 
do what I have to do," said Breugem, who believes the berm is already safe. 
"But I need the time to do it."

Meanwhile, Vickers argued the situation has improved over time. Abitibi 
recently signed an agreement with the province to stop disposing of paper 
waste in berms. The company is monitoring groundwater near the berm, with 
the first test results under review at the ministry, said Vickers.

That's small comfort to residents, said Climenhage. The agreement doesn't 
remove the 36,000-tonne problem in Fenwick, where residents still fear their 
health is in jeopardy from leaching newsprint and magazine chemicals.

It also doesn't explain why the ministry refused to prevent the problem in 
the first place, said Climenhage.

The Environmental Protection Act exemption allows dumping to go unregulated.

The loophole, meant to encourage recycling, allows companies to market waste 
as a saleable product or use it in an ongoing manufacturing process without 
ministry approval.

In this case, paper waste is mixed with sand, federally trademarked as 
Sound-Sorb and dumped in piles to act as sound barriers. It's also mixed 
with fertilizer and called Nitro-Sorb, which is spread on farmers' fields - 
also without government knowledge or approval.

That doesn't make sense, said Deb Vice, who heads a group called Protect the 
Ridges, which is protesting a berm in Oshawa.

"People need to understand this is an industrial waste from an industrial 
process," she said.

"It should be managed and regulated like any other waste, by the province."

A provincially mandated expert panel made the same recommendation two years 
ago.

Similar calls from municipalities, public health departments and Ontario's 
environment commissioner have also been ignored.

The province's answer hasn't changed in two years.

"The review of the expert panel's recommendations is ongoing," said Rod 
Adams, the province's point man on the Sound-Sorb issue.

Adams knows many Ontario residents are unhappy with how long the review is 
taking - and he can't promise the outcome will result in new regulations.

But he said regulating all paper waste, in any form, is one of the options 
being studied.

The review process might be slow, but that doesn't mean the province has 
been standing still, Adams said.

The ministry has reached agreements with the two biggest producers of paper 
waste, Atlantic Packaging and Abitibi Consolidated, to stop building 
Sound-Sorb berms. (That doesn't stop them from spreading it as Nitro-Sorb, 
however.)

Atlantic Packaging is also testdriving a new sludge incinerator, while 
Abitibi is spending $100,000 to study new ways to get rid of paper waste.

Both companies have agreed to monitor water quality around several existing 
berms.

But to Vice, it seems like the province is shirking its responsibilities.

"Leaving testing in the hands of industry, for us, doesn't inspire a lot of 
faith," she said.

Climenhage hopes that whoever does the testing, it will ultimately result in 
the berm disappearing.

Vickers said the ministry doesn't have the authority to order the Fenwick 
berm removed. However, in a Hamilton case, the courts ordered a berm taken 
down in 2004 when runoff tested acutely toxic to trout.

"That's the ultimate dream, to have it gone," said Climenhage, who, with his 
neighbours, has appealed to local officials, the environment minister and 
opposition politicians.

"But for now, we just want it to be safe. The process is slow, but we 
haven't given up."

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