"CANARY IN THE COAL MINE"-TREES NEAR THE WATERLOO REGION LANDFILL ON ERB ST.

Today's Record carries the following story titled "Waterloo resident concerned about health of trees in neighbourhood". A resident of Westvale Drive on the west side of Waterloo is concerned by the numbers of dead or dying trees on her street. Westvale is a circular shaped street next to the Erb St. Landfill. That landfill has been there since the 1970s and there were not initially proper leachate controls in place. They were retrofitted I'm guessing somewhere in the mid to late 1990s. The landfill was also originally scheduled for about a 20 year lifespan but just like gravel pits, once situated, they are difficult to shut down especially if the local government claims there are no alternatives.

The story indicates that the trees having problems are "Big ones, little ones, deciduous, evergreens." Despite that Tim Wolfe of the Region of Waterloo suggests that almost all the dead or ailing trees are ash trees affected by the emerald ash borer. So which is it folks?

The Region also suggests that more than 500 groundwater monitoring wells in and around the landfill "...are tested routinely to ensure nothing is migrating into the ground." My bullshit meter began loudly beeping after reading that. Nobody has 500 monitoring wells anywhere on the planet to ensure that nothing is migrating. They had groundwater contamination on that site years before they installed the first monitoring well and the next 499 are to determine exactly what contaminants at what concentrations are migrating where. Years to decades ago there were stories in the Record describing contaminant plumes (groundwater) migrating from this landfill site. Add to that years of embarassing lack of enforcement including drums of liquid solvents being dumped into this landfill courtesy of Varnicolor Chemical in Elmira. That story was also in the Record decades ago.

Long story short: our authorities seem to believe that they have a duty, a right, and an obligation to sugarcoat inconvenient truths that might upset the public.