Monday, June 9, 2014

MORE ENVIRONMENTAL WISHFUL THINKING BY THOSE IN CHARGE



Last Friday's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Old landfill may put Waterloo at odds with region". The good news in this story is the listing of several old landfill sites in Waterloo Region. The bad news is the "rationale" behind "monitoring" of these sites. Allegedly the Ministry of the Environment requires post-closure monitoring and care for the next 25 years. Well the fact is that lots of this garbage will take that long just to begin to break down. Steel, plastic and rubber that aren't exposed to sunlight and oxygen in particular will still be in good shape 25 years later. Yes foodstuffs and paper products may well be breaking down but then you still have the issue of leachate. Most if not all of these old landfills were never built with any kind of leachate collection and treatment systems. Even the still open Erb St. landfill in Waterloo was merely retrofitted after the fact with leachate control and pumping to the Kitcheber Sewage Treatment Plant. The reality is that both the Region and the M.O.E. are counting once again upon dilution being the solution to pollution. Leachate ends up in groundwater which eventually discharges to surface water hopefully in low enough concentrations not to cause acute health problems for either humans or wildlife. What a system.

Here in Elmira which is part of Woolwich Township we have several former landfills including M1, M2 (on the Chemtura site), Bolender Park and the First St. Landfill at the end of Howard & First Ave. So much for the Record article suggesting all of Woolwich Township only has two landfills. The other one outside of Elmira is known as the Woolwich Landfill and the Record article does mention that it is currently leased to a model airplane club.

A word of caution to residents on private wells located near former landfills. Sending water samples to the Region of Waterloo only tells you about potential bacterial problems. A private lab will test for industrial chemicals common in landfills and that testing unfortunately will be expensive.

No comments:

Post a Comment