Site 41: Only Our Mayor Supports It

Believe it or not, Site 41 (a 150 acre tract of prime agricultural land in the Wye River valley in Conc. 2 of Tiny) was selected as a County dumpsite BECAUSE of its plentiful water. The engineering design for the site is said to depend on the pressure of water from below; that pressure, it is claimed, will result in water flowing into the garbage through any weaknesses in the liner and will prevent the flow of contaminated water out of the garbage through any holes in the liner into the aquifers below.

The question is – will it work? The citizens of Tiny and Springwater worry that it won’t, and that aquifers will be polluted.

The Site has the necessary approvals, but these are contingent upon favourable responses by the Ministry of the Environment to the many concerns about the proposed design that were raised in three separate technical peer reviews.

How can it be stopped? In the aftermath of Walkerton, the Province is in the midst of implementing a Watershed-Based Source Protection program. A Director’s Order from the Ministry of the Environment could designate Site 41 as a drinking water source area, and that would trigger a reassessment of the suitability of the site based on stricter ground water standards. Various citizens’ groups (including the Federation of Tiny Township Shoreline Associations) have been circulating petitions and bringing pressure to bear on the Ministry of the Environment to that effect. The Federation and other groups are trying to persuade the municipalities in Simcoe County to oppose the dumpsite at the County level.

What has Council done? The last Council authorized the spending of $20,000 to finance a peer review of the site design. The current Council is spending up to $10,000 more for a professional assessment of the proponent’s responses to the concerns raised in the peer review.

In addition, at the insistence of Mayor Klug, Council spent the evening of February 2 learning about the County’s role in waste and garbage management and hearing a presentation about the history of Site 41 and its design.

On March 8, Council passed a motion by a 3:1 vote (Deputy Mayor Pierre Paul Maurice being away on vacation) which asked, among other things, that the County of Simcoe
• defer any decision on Site 41 until the Province of
Ontario establishes its policies regarding protection
of groundwater sources, and;
• delay commencement of any construction of Site
41 until all this pertinent information is available for
review in order to make informed decisions.

Councillors Peggy Breckenridge, Millar and Panasiuk voted in favour because they felt they should reflect the views of Tiny’s residents. Mayor Klug cast the dissenting vote, arguing that the site was selected because there was water there, that the experts agree that the proposed engineering will work, that he saw the issue as one of science vs. emotion, and that NIMBYism bothers him. The motion was sent to the other municipalities in Simcoe County and to the Ministry of the Environment asking for their support.

Mayor Klug Replaced on the Site 41 Community Monitoring Committee: On April 24, Councillor Panasiuk raised the question of Council’s representation on the Site 41 CMC. The Committee is comprised of 3 area residents who live near Site 41, 1 representative from the County of Simcoe, and 2 representatives from the Council of Tiny Township. In Panasiuk’s view, the Council’s representatives should express Council’s view. Yet Mayor Klug’s dissenting vote suggested that he would probably not do so. Deputy Mayor Maurice said that he would go further than supporting a moratorium: he wants Site 41 stopped.

On May 10, Council voted 3-2 to have Deputy Mayor Maurice and Ray Millar as its representatives on the CMC. The dissenting votes were the Mayors and Deputy Mayor’s. Deputy Mayor Maurice felt that it was wise to keep Mayor Klug on the Committee in order to persuade him to the majority view about the dumpsite.

To keep yourself informed of developments and public meetings, check http://www.stopdumpsite41.ca and http://www.tinycottager.org.