Sludge Watch ==> Pelham paper sludge berm property - now burns 'biomass'

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Looks like the property that harbours a huge huge mountain of putrescing 
papermill sludge from Abitibi and other paper mills now has a 'biomass 
burner' on site.

Neighbors were not asked to comment...and don't know if there are any 
Ministry permits for the burning.

Word on the street.."the only green thing about this is the money".  There 
are Orders from the Ministry of the Environment against the property.  The 
community is still being stalled, still waiting for compliance on this.

And all of us in Ontario are waiting for the ugly bunch at the Ontario 
Ministry of the Environment to implement the recommendations of the 
government 'Expert Panel' on paper sludge.
The Ministry is listening to voices...but not the voices of the experts .... 
not the voices of the people.  Just how much money did the taxpayers of 
Ontario pay for all the experts, all the public meetings, all the sludge 
tests...to then just ignore the report???

Dear Auditor.....

Expert Panel report:
http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/land/soundsorb/soundsorb.htm


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Man in berm dispute opens doors
Posted By MONIQUE BEECH

An embattled greenhouse owner embroiled in a Fenwick feud over a giant pile 
of paper sludge sitting on his property maintains his operations are 
environmentally friendly.

Opening his gates to visitors Saturday afternoon, Dirk Breugem said he 
wanted the community to see just how clean his Greenland Greenhouses 
business on Church Street actually is.

Breugem showed guests his giant biomass boiler fuelled by woodchips 
recovered from local lumberyards - not heaps of recycled paper sludge as 
neighbours had feared.

The owner said it's a cost-efficient way of heating his greenhouses, where 
he grows seedless cucumbers, without emitting harmful pollutants in the air.

He takes pride in a new closed-water system that collects all the excess 
water after dousing his crops and stores it in giant tanks for reuse.

"I think what we have here is the most environmentally friendly farm in 
Canada," said Breugem, a native of the Netherlands who bought the property 
last year.

"It shows people what I'm doing. I don't think people are educated about 
it."

But members of a local citizens group who came to the open house argued 
Breugem's greenhouse has never been the problem.

It's a 36,000-tonne pile of recycled paper sludge - mostly water and paper 
fibres mixed with sand - that's driven angry neighbours to mobilize.

Recycler Abitibi Consolidated paid a contractor to construct a paper-sludge 
berm to serve as a sound barrier at the Fenwick farm last summer, before 
Breugem purchased the property.

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=744490&auth=MONIQUE+BEECH