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June
2003 Newsletter
Where We Are At: Status of the Expressway
The
title is misleading because the situation is changing daily,
but here is the status of the expressway as of June 8.
Mayor
Wade held a press conference in late March to announce the
start of construction, although the Council resolution to
approve this didn't occur until April 22 (Earth Day!). The
vote held no surprises. Councillors Dave Braden, Andrea
Horwath, Margaret McCarthy and Russ Powers were opposed.
Wade and the remaining councillors voted to proceed. They
did so despite the admission by City staff that many approvals
have not yet been obtained. In fact, there are more than
a dozen outstanding permits, authorizations and approvals
that the City still hasn't obtained today. Councillor Braden
asked Project Director Chris Murray to provide a detailed
list of the outstanding approvals and their status at the
April 22 meeting. Friends has been asking for this since
last November. The federal fisheries department specifically
asked for this in a letter to the City in January. Councillor
Braden asked for it again at the most recent council meeting.
Apparently it is inconvenient for the project staff and
mayor's office to provide this information.
The
April 22 vote was also taken PRIOR to the release of twenty-five
consultant reports on the predicted effects of the expressway.
Pro-expressway councillors apparently don't give a damn
what these reports say, and project staff found no reason
to tell them. Most of the reports were released in late
April, some at the end of May and at least one is still
outstanding. The missing ones include the official responses
to the submissions made by individuals and organizations
in October 1998. Also missing is the report summarizing
the predicted environmental impacts. A truncated version
of this "Impact Assessment Summary Report" was
handed to councillors minutes before they voted on April
22. The last page (17) of the report is titled: "What
impact will the project have on the natural environment
and the adjacent neighbourhood and what can be done to reduce
the predicted impacts". This is followed by 85 words
ending with the promise that this information "will
be released in the next few weeks". That still hasn't
occurred, but is apparently irrelevant to the Mayor and
pro-expressway councillors.
In
late March, Friends of Red Hill uncovered information about
a significant roadblock for the expressway. Construction
of the road requires the re-location of the TransNorthern
oil pipeline that runs through the valley. This is the major
product pipeline between Sarnia and Toronto. The City needs
to ask the company to move the pipeline, and then the company
needs to get permission from the National Energy Board.
This would normally trigger a federal environmental assessment.
In January, the City paid its outside lawyers to submit
a 62-page legal argument directly to the National Energy
Board in an attempt to avoid this assessment. The Board
rejected the City intervention and has subsequently stated
that it will facilitate full public involvement in its decision-making
process on this issue (this was partly in response to a
clutch of letters sent to the Board at the urging of the
Chamber of Commerce). At this point, the City has apparently
not yet asked the pipeline company to move the pipeline.
Also
in late March, three weeks before the Council's Earth Day
"authorization", the City arranged that CN Rail
crews cut down the trees in the CN right-of-way just south
of the Rennie Street Dump. It was explained that this was
necessary to avoid interfering with nesting of migratory
birds. Federal migratory bird law forbids interference with
nesting birds. Thus if there are no trees, there won't be
any birds nesting in them.
The
City has awarded a $5 million contract for a new rail bridge
at this location, and the private company began setting
up there last week. The initial work involves widening the
existing rail embankment and re-locating the double tracks
further north onto the extended embankment. This is to allow
construction of a bridge to permit the expressway to pass
underneath the rail lines. The current CN rail line is 12
metres from the closed toxic Rennie Street Dump. Leachate
from this dump earned the City a $487,000 fine in 2000.
Since then a $12 million remediation project has installed
a leachate collection system along the creek side of the
dump. The temporary relocation of the rail lines will bring
them much closer to the dump, and also require shifting
of a spur line that crosses part of the dump. Ministry of
the Environment guidelines state that no change in land
use is permitted within 30 metres of a closed landfill.
The Ministry has asked the City how it intends to conform
to the guidelines, but at this point has not taken any action.
While this is a guideline, not a law, it is supposed to
be respected.
While
the initial rail bridge work obviously violates these guidelines,
the full City plans for this site run afoul of three additional
Ministry rules (laws rather than guidelines). Once the bridge
is constructed, the City plans to punch through the end
of the Rennie Street Dump and remove about 25% of it (70,000
tonnes). Aside from destroying much of the leachate collection
system installed by the City in the last two years, this
excavation of a toxic landfill is extremely dangerous. When
excavation of Rennie was demanded by local residents after
the 2000 fine, City officials and consultants said that
such an action could release toxic vapours and require the
evacuation of the entire neighbourhood. Apparently this
is not a concern when weighed against the importance of
building the Red Hill Creek Expressway.
Section
46 of the Environmental Protection Act forbids any use of
a landfill site within 25 years of the last waste being
dumped there. The City used the Rennie site for waste dumping
well into the 1990s. Part V of the same act requires a public
process including hearings (if there is sufficient public
concern) prior to the "alteration" of a landfill
site. City officials claim that removing 25% of the landfill
does not constitute an alteration. The City does admit that
it will need to amend its Ministry Certificate of Approval
for the leachate collection system, but has not bothered
to apply for this amendment prior to beginning construction.
The
City has also posted two tenders for additional expressway
work. The first is for the construction of part of the interchange
at Greenhill Avenue, and the second is to build two additional
bridges as part of the Mud Street interchange. Work at the
Greenhill site is scheduled to begin this summer. If it
proceeds, it will involve the clearing of half a hectare
of natural area. The Mud Street work is south of Mud Street
in the vicinity of previous construction work associated
with extending the Linc.
The
work at Greenhill and Mud lies within the jurisdiction of
the Niagara Escarpment Commission which has repeatedly stated
that the City requires a new Development Permit before proceeding.
The City says it doesn't need a new permit. (See below for
the letter recently sent to the NEC by Friends and the Coalition
on the Niagara Escarpment).
City
plans also include a fall start on clearing the main central
part of the valley between Glencastle Drive and Barton Street.
No details of these plans are currently available.
As
noted above, the City still requires more than a dozen permits
and approvals. Their obvious strategy is to try and get
as much done as possible prior to the November 10 elections
so they can claim that the project is unstoppable. More
specifically, they are starting with projects which are
the least subject to the outstanding permit requirements,
apparently hoping that the permits will be obtained in time
to allow their plans to continue. This explains why they
are jumping from place to place in their initial construction
plans, and why they propose to start the main work in the
middle of the valley.
Friends
of Red Hill and others will continue to do whatever we can
to force regulatory agencies to actually enforce the law
on the City. This may postpone construction plans, but there
is no certainty that it will prevent the project from eventually
proceeding. The best hope to save the valley now lies in
the November 10 municipal elections. We only need four additional
council votes (including the Mayor) to stop the expressway.
It is critical that everyone does their part to accomplish
this.
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