Sludge Watch ==> Ontario - Fenwick Paper Sludge Berm 36, 000 tonnes of trouble

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Can you imagine a hundred truck trailers of industrial paper sludge dropping 
their loads next door to your house every day?

Can you imagine the stink, the run off, the mold and fungus, the risk to 
your drinking water well?

Can you imagine the Ontario Government telling your the mountain of 
industrial sludge is an agricultural berm to protect a defunct green house 
from train noise?

Even after the Ontario Liberal Government consulted a panel of health and 
environmental experts who advised them to manage the sludge as a waste - the 
Ontario Government has done ....

nothing.

Sludgewatch is now being contacted by families who tell me their children 
are getting nosebleeds and breathing difficulties when they are exposed to 
the sludge.


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www.stcatharinesstandard.ca


File Photo
A berm consisting of 36,000 tonnes of recycled paper sludge was erected on a 
Church Street farm in Fenwick last summer.; Lloyd Climenhage looks at water 
pooled at the base of a paper-sludge berm across the street from his Fenwick 
home in this November 2006 photo. He is continuing to push for the berm to 
be made safe, but ultimately he wants it removed. STANDARD FILE PHOTO

Photo: File Photo

The Fenwick berm: 36,000 tonnes of trouble; A year later, the paper-sludge 
pile is still causing a big stink

MATTHEW VAN DONGEN
For: www.stcatharinesstandard.ca

« Previous Page

- Monday, July 16, 2007 @ 01:00

This is the first in a series of stories about the environment from Osprey 
News Network.

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.

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.

Abitibi still maintains 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 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.

The ministry "is very disappointed" with the response to the provincial 
orders, he said.

But on Friday, 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. Fenwick residents aren't the only ones 
upset.

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

There could be more than 30 across the province, said Deb Vice, a vocal 
opponent of the practice, but no one officially keeps track.

That's because an 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 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 test-driving 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."

mvandongen at stcatharinesstandard.ca

About Sound-Sorb

Definition: A mixture of sand and paper-fibre biosolids, the waste produced 
in paper recycling. Recyclers say the material is mostly clay, wood and 
paper fibres. Sound-Sorb opponents worry the leftover sludge contains 
chemicals used in the recycling process, or from magazines and newspapers.

By the numbers: Abitibi produces 400 tonnes of paper-fibre biosolids each 
day. Fenwick's berm holds an estimated 36,000 tonnes of paper sludge.

The problem: contaminated runoff escapes into the environment from the 
Fenwick berm during hard rains.

The Ministry of the Environment has issued three orders to fix the problem. 
Another berm in Port Colborne is also the subject of a similar provincial 
order.

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




Repairs to berm made of sludge slow in coming; Property owner says he'll 
comply with MOE orders within week or two

MATTHEW VAN DONGEN
For: www.stcatharinesstandard.ca


- Saturday, July 14, 2007 @ 01:00

The province has launched an investigation into why a controversial paper 
sludge berm in Pelham still hasn't been made environmentally safe, more than 
a year after it was built.

The 36,000-tonne pile of recycled paper waste was dumped at 325 Church St. 
as a sound barrier, but it began leaking contaminated runoff into a nearby 
drainage ditch.

The Ministry of the Environment has issued three orders to the owner of the 
property to repair and cover the berm, said local MOE branch manager Rich 
Vickers.

The current owner, Dirk Breugem, hasn't done either yet, Vickers said.

"As a result, we've turned it over to the investigations branch ... for 
possible prosecution," he said. "We have a number of options available in 
our toolbox to deal with this, but for now we'll see where (the 
investigation) leads."

Friday night, Breugem said the ordered repairs should be done in a week or 
two.

But Breugem added he considers the berm safe right now. Environmental 
concerns, he argued, "have been blown all out of proportion" by the ministry 
and the media.

"I'll do what I have to do," he said at his greenhouse operation. "But I 
need the time to do it."

Vickers said the ministry "is very disappointed" with the slow response to 
its orders.

So is Lloyd Climenhage, a berm neighbour who has watched contaminated runoff 
rush off the berm in hard rainstorms.

Climenhage was elated at the news.

"That's excellent. This should get things moving," Climenhage said. "This 
isn't something that can wait. It's not a problem that's going to go away."

Initially, the huge pile of paper sludge was encircled by a clay embankment 
to stop rain water from running into the environment. But that embankment 
has been trampled or eroded in places, according to Climenhage.

Recent reports from the ministry have shown the leakage could pose a threat 
to water quality in the municipal drain.

Climenhage said he hopes the investigation will spur immediate action.

Hot, dry weather has stopped berm runoff recently, but Climenhage said he 
expects rain in the fall to send more bacteria-ridden water flooding into 
the environment.

The ministry orders required the property owner to repair the protective 
clay wall and cover the entire berm with soil and grass. The berm is made of 
a mixture of sand and paper fibre biosolids, the waste created by paper 
recycling at Abitibi Consolidated in Thorold. Abitibi maintains it's safe to 
use the "inert" material in berms if they're properly built and maintained.

Residents protested the building of what they called a "sludge mountain," 
fearing the runoff would send chemicals from magazine ink and the recycling 
process into the environment.

Abitibi has since agreed to monitor groundwater around the berm and get rid 
of its paper waste in other ways.

mvandongen at stcatharinesstandard.ca