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December
2, 2003
RENNIE CLEANUP A MAJOR TASK
By Chris Sorensen, Hamilton Spectator
It
will take as many as 100 dump trucks operating 12 hours
a day, five days a week, for up to six months to clear waste
from the toxic Rennie Street dump and make way for the Red
Hill Creek Expressway.
A total of 70,000 cubic metres of waste material, including
everything from crushed concrete to oil drums to decades-old
household garbage, will have to be moved to another landfill
as the $10-million project proceeds, say city documents
about the proposed project.
Of
that, an estimated 1,200 cubic metres of waste (roughly
2 per cent) is laced with PCBs, and therefore considered
a health hazard.
Polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) are a mixture of individual chemicals found
in the environment. Health effects that have been associated
with exposure to PCBs include acne-like skin conditions
in adults and neurobehavioural and immunological changes
in children. PCBs are known to cause cancer in animals.
The
likely destination for the contaminated material will be
a hazardous waste disposal operation near Sarnia, says Red
Hill project leader Chris Murray.
He
said yesterday that the plan calls for waste to be trucked
out of the Rennie Street dump to Bancroft Street and then
down Centennial Parkway and onto the Queen Elizabeth Way.
"We're
keeping it in the industrial areas and away from neighbourhoods,"
Murray said.
"When
you're doing something like this, health and safety is paramount."
In
order to build the expressway through the lower end of the
valley, the city must dig up a corner of the old dump where
it has just installed a costly system to collect toxic leachate
seeping from the waste.
The
collector was installed as part of a multimillion-dollar
cleanup the city agreed to when it was convicted of letting
pesticides and PCBs from the dump pollute Red Hill Creek.
The
city is waiting for the Environment Ministry's approval
before it can go ahead with the excavation.
Lynda
Lukasik, co-chair of a community liaison committee that
oversees the dump's remediation, is concerned about potentially
hazardous dust that will be released into the air once the
bulldozers go to work.
She
noted that the city originally ruled out excavating the
entire site as part of the remediation because it was deemed
undesirable.
"Now
the city is saying that, for the purposes of the expressway,
we are going to have to slice into the most hazardous portion
of the landfill? We are struggling with that."
Under
the proposal, the city will rely on licensed contractors
to haul the waste safely. Much of it will be trucked to
regular landfills, which will be determined by the contractors
according to best available price.
The
city also plans to reduce the impact on nearby residents
by cleaning vehicles before they leave the site, sweeping
the streets along the route, controlling traffic lights
to reduce congestion and using covered trucks. To keep the
odour to a minimum, the city proposes to dig during the
winter months beginning in November 2004 when people tend
to spend more time indoors and the overall air quality is
better.
Lukasik
said that particular caveat also gave her cause for concern.
"If
you suddenly rip open the site and are going to have odour
problems ... what's actually causing that smell?"
She
said the committee will consider hiring an air quality consultant
to evaluate the plan. The committee has already hired a
local hydrogeologist to look at the project.
Wilf
Ruland, who presented a critical preliminary report to waste
management officials last week, found the city's diagrams
of a relocated leachate collection system riddled with conceptual
flaws and lacking in important details. Ruland is recommending
the committee request the province halt its review of the
city's application to go ahead with the project.
Residents,
who live near the dump, have also expressed misgivings.
Zen
Matwiyiw, whose property abuts the landfill, says the plan
is "wishy-washy" on the possibility of creating
new environmental problems by digging up a contained landfill
full of toxic material.
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