FIFTY YEARS LATER- OTTAWA ST. LANDFILL

Oh for the good old days when politicians could site municipal landfills just about anywhere they wanted. Well those shortsighted decisions live on for many decades. A mere $13 million dollars in cleanup costs did it for the property across Ottawa St. from the former (but still leaking ) landfill. The city of Kitchener had a holding provision on the property until the developer could obtain a Record of Site Condition from the Ontario Ministry of Environment. 1,334 cubic metres of contaminated soil was removed and replaced with clean fill. Also a clay barrier wall was built "...to seal off wastes coming from the former landfill on the other side of Ottawa St.". Presumably these are liquid wastes which have been moving in the groundwater for a very long time. ............................................................................................................ The title of the story in today's Waterloo Region Record is "Construction could soon start on major development near Mclennan Park". In the old days no consideration was given to either methane production and transport in the subsurface nor to chemicals getting into the groundwater and moving off site. The biggest apparent problems were odours and paper s being blown around and off-site. Oh our politicians were so naive. Do you really think that all these landfill problems had not been experienced and overcome in Europe long before they became problems here? ...................................................................................................... The site is now being redeveloped for combined residential-commercial purposes.