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December
1999 Newsletter
City
Charged Over Leaking Valley Landfill
On
November 9th, 1999, with the help of the Environmental Bureau
of Investigation and the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, charges
were laid against the City of Hamilton for allowing the
unabated flow of toxic leachate from the old Rennie Street
landfill into Red Hill Creek.
The
charges have been laid under Section 36(3) of the federal
Fisheries Act and Section 14(1) of the provincial Environmental
Protection Act. The federal Fisheries Act charge relates
to the discharge of a deleterious substance into waters
frequented by fish. The substance of concern in this instance
is ammonia which, in its un-ionized form, is toxic to fish.
Un-ionized ammonia was measured in the landfill leachate
at levels 750 to 1000 times the provincial water quality
objective.
The
provincial Environmental Protection Act charge relates to
the unlawful discharge of a contaminant, in this case PCBs,
into Red Hill Creek. PCBs were measured in the leachate
at levels 40,000 times above the provincial water quality
objective.
Both
the Fisheries Act and the Environmental Protection Act contain
provisions allowing for citizens to initiate private prosecutions
by collecting evidence and then bringing charges before
a Justice of the Peace. This is what a small group from
east Hamilton have done in their efforts to see the problems
at the Rennie Street site rectified.
Background
The Rennie Street landfill, located just south of the Woodward
Sewage treatment plant and Brampton landfill, is an interesting
site with a long and rather colourful history. The site
is still labelled on many maps as 'Patrick Burns Park',
but is currently home to the City of Hamilton's Public Works
Yard. Readily accessible to the public from the railway
tracks that divert off of the Red Hill recreational trail
at Brampton Street, or from the CN tracks off of Nash Road,
the site is used as a dumping ground for street sweepings,
some yard waste, construction debris and until recently
snow removed from city streets.
But
it is the historical use of the site that is the greatest
cause for concern. The area was once a low-lying marshland,
much like what you see at the mouth of the Red Hill Creek
today. During the 1950s, landfilling began to take place
here, and continued right up to the edge of Red Hill Creek.
Formal
records of any materials deposited at the site in the early
days are non-existent and any other information is sketchy,
but longtime residents of the area are proving to be a very
valuable information source.
Once
the charges were formally laid, neighbourhood people began
to come forward with astonishing, yet consistent, recollections
of activities that took place at the Rennie site. Adults
recounted playing near the dump as kids and watching trucks
hauling industrial waste arriving at the site like clockwork.
First thing each morning and then again at the end of the
day, a truck would arrive with barrels of waste.
It
was often liquid waste that was dumped from barrels directly
onto the ground. Sometimes entire barrels were thrown into
a gully located directly behind the homes on Waterloo Street,
then crushed and buried with a backhoe.
Recent
Developments
Since
the charges were formally laid in early November, there
has been a whirlwind of activity related to the Rennie Street
site. On December 6, at a meeting of the city's Transport
and Environment Committee, committee members approved the
spending of $600,000 from a 'special reserve fund' to install
a leachate collection system at Rennie. The same day as
this decision, it was revealed that on November 29th, the
local office of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment
had issued a field order requiring the city to address the
problems identified at the Rennie site. Included in the
order are the following requirements, which must be satisfied
by the end of December 1999: (1) install a silt fence to
prevent the discharge of contaminated soil into Red Hill
Creek. (2) cease all discharges of contaminated groundwater,
leachate, and any other such liquids from the site into
Red Hill Creek. (3) conduct a detailed site investigation
and prepare a detailed remedial action work plan for the
site.
The
city has decided to appeal the field order, mainly to seek
an extension on the timeline the Ministry of Environment
has set out.
Meanwhile,
the first court appearance related to the charges took place
on December 7th. The city has hired Mr. David Crocker, an
environmental lawyer, to represent them in this case. At
this first meeting, an agreement was reached to hold over
a pre-trial meeting to January 25th, 2000.
Expressway
Connection
In
our efforts to learn about the site, we examined a consultant's
report issued in May 1998 as part of the expressway preparatory
work. The report, prepared by Dillon Consulting, represents
the results of a survey of potentially contaminated sites
within the Red Hill Valley. The Rennie Street landfill is
identified as the most problematic of all sites listed.
Within this document there are maps which indicate that
the proposed expressway would literally plow right through
the old Rennie landfill. Detailed investigations of the
portion of the site within the proposed roadway corridor
indicated that the soil here is contaminated with high enough
levels of PCBs to render it hazardous. The report also mentions
the fact that the Region will cover the costs of any containment
necessary at the site, as part of expressway construction.
It
is difficult to imagine that a local government could be
so blatantly negligent in its environmental responsibilities
in this day and age. Why, given what the city knows about
about the site, has there been no action to address the
problem? A recent article on the Rennie landfill which appeared
in the Hamilton Spectator has the communications
spokesperson for the City of Hamilton explaining that the
city will spend $600,000 for a leachate collection system
which will later have to be partially torn out for expressway
construction.
Combining
the recognition that the Region plans to pay for any containment
at the landfill with the fact that the city has failed to
take any action to address problems at the Rennie site can
only make one wonder whether we are once again witnessing
the sacrifice of east Hamilton's environment for the expressway
project. Was the plan to allow toxic leachate from Rennie
to continue to flow freely into Red Hill Creek until such
time as the city could rely on substantial financial contributions
from the region to address the problems at the site? Sadly,
when you step back and look at the history of the Rennie
issue, it is difficult to draw any other logical conclusions.
If
you have any memories of the Rennie Landfill that you are
willing to share, please contact Lynda at 560-1177.
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