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October/November
2000 Newsletter
The
Rennie Dump and the Expressway
In
mid-September, the City of Hamilton pleaded guilty to allowing
PCBs and other toxic wastes to pour into Red Hill Creek
from the Rennie Street Landfill site. The City was fined
$480,000 and has been forced to commit to an $11 million
cleanup plan. The dump lies in the path of the proposed
Red Hill Creek Expressway.
In
early October, the region admitted the existence of a second
dump in the path of the expressway. The cleanup costs for
this site (including work on the Brampton dump) are estimated
at $12 million, raising the total bill for dump remediation
between the CNR and the QEW to at least $23 million.
These
events have major implications for the proposed Red Hill
Creek Expressway, and especially for the Region's desperate
attempts to prevent a federal environmental assessment of
the project. The revelations show that an assessment is
absolutely critical. How many other dirty secrets related
to the expressway has the Region been hiding?
While
the City got charged because it owns the Rennie site, it
is very clear that it is the Regional government which should
bear most of the responsibility.
The
Regional level of government is responsible for closed landfill
sites. They weren't officially in charge of the Rennie site
or the "Nash" dump because the sites were never registered
as landfills. Old maps label the Rennie site "Patrick Burns
Park", and the City has been using it for many years as
a Public Works yard.
However, consultant reports for the expressway identify
both sites as old landfills. For example, regional staff
and politicians received an expressway planning study in
1989 called "Geotechnical Investigation Rennie Street Landfill
North-South Parkway". It reported that discoloured liquid
was leaking out of the dump into the creek, but apparently
didn't examine it for PCBs or other toxics. In 1994, another
set of expressway consultants noted the existence there
of an "old municipal dump site" with an average depth of
garbage of nine metres.
Like
the Rennie dump, the "new" landfill is only a surprise to
some. Regional officials have known about it since at least
1990 when Conestoga-Rovers & Associates presented a report
to the Region that identified the site and reported that
leachate from it was flowing into Red Hill Creek. The 1990
study was also done specifically for the expressway project.
Both
dumps are also discussed in a July 1997 regional report
done by a fourth set of expressway consultants. This "Red
Hill Creek Watershed Study Report on Known and Potential
Contaminant Sources" was prepared by Dillon Consulting Limited.
Dillion subsequently did a two volume study that was given
to the Region no later than May 1998 which said that PCBs
were in the landfill and were leaking into the creek.
Some
politicians have admitted knowing about Rennie but they
had apparently decided not to bother stopping the toxic
flows until they got around to building the expressway.
Chad Collins, the chair of the City's Transport and Environment
committee, told the Spectator in September: "We had a plan
to clean it up that was part of the expressway project".
Mr. Collins is one of the councillors who is supporting
the Region's efforts to avoid an environmental assessment
of the expressway. Fred Eisenberger, chair of the region's
environmental services committee has also admitted he knew.
His quote is: "I certainly didn't say I didn't know. Obviously
the expressway has been a factor here." Eisenberger is also
demanding the federal assessment be stopped.
In
addition to the expressway studies, citizen groups have
been complaining for years about the Rennie site. One was
the Bay Area Restoration Council which wrote to the Region
and the Ministry in 1995 asking for a full environmental
assessment of the expressway project. Their report specifically
mentioned Rennie and noted the existence of "several leachate
flows from this area".
The
1996 Biological Inventory of Red Hill Creek prepared by
the Hamilton Naturalists' Club for the Hamilton Region Conservation
Authority, and provided to both the Region and the Ministry
of the Environment noted: "below the CNR bridge, the Rennie
Street landfill site on the west side has been backfilled
into the creek, creating a high and very steep eroding bank.
Several noxious leachate seepages, giving off petroleum
odours, were found here draining into the creek."
In 1997, the City and the Region cooked up a deal transferring
valley lands from the City to the Region for the expressway.
Every piece of City land required for the expressway was
sold except the dumpsites north of the CNR line. There was
no explanation for this omission. The deal was finalized
in the spring of 1998.
By
that time, the Ministry of the Environment had carried out
testing of the Rennie dump leachate and found the PCBs.
In May 1998 they ordered the City "to carry out further
testing to confirm these levels and to take the necessary
remedial measures to eliminate the seepage of wastes into
the creek." They also demanded a "comprehensive evaluation
of the works yard site".
All
of this evidence suggests that regional and city officials
knew about the problems at Rennie for a long time, and chose
to allow poisons to continue to flow into Red Hill Creek.
CONTAMINATION
The catalogue of contaminated sites north of the CNR line
now stands at four — the Rennie Dump, the Brampton
Dump, the Stoney Creek Dump and a 2.2 acre piece of property
called Nash Auto Parts, which was purchased by the Region
in 1998 for use for the expressway corridor. That latter
item cost $2.95 million and staff estimated a further $1.35
million would be needed to cleanup the contamination from
the wrecking yard operations.
PCBs
PCBs
are one of the most dangerous chemicals known to humans
and have been banned in Canada and the United States since
the 1970s. PCBs are a carcinogen and bioaccumulate in the
fat cells, reaching their highest concentrations in animals
(such as humans) who are at the top of the food chain.
What
goes into Red Hill Creek flows into Hamilton Harbour and
within less than 90 days is part of Lake Ontario, the place
we draw our water for cooking, bathing, drinking, etc. Our
water treatment system is not equipped to remove PCBs and
other chemicals.
Any
councillor who still supports the Region's court challenge
of the federal environmental assessment, should be required
to explain why they think problems like the Rennie dump
shouldn't be independently investigated. It is clear that
the people in charge of the expressway project hid this
toxic disaster from the public and that they cannot be trusted.
Indeed, in many societies poisoning the water is considered
a capital offence.
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