Oxford People Against the Landfill (OPAL) Alliance Responds to Walker Industries’ Terms of Reference for Its Mega-Landfill INGERSOLL - OPAL Alliance released today its response to Walker Industries’ final Southwestern Landfill Proposal Terms of Reference to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. With only 60 days to craft its rebuttal, OPAL created a special team of volunteers to read, review and write a collective response to Walker’s nearly 7,000-page Terms of Reference and Supporting Documents, the corporation’s game plan to study conditions and concerns regarding its landfill proposed for Zorra Township and bordering Ingersoll, Beachville and Centreville. OPAL’s response is further strengthened by written responses from OPAL’s legal counsel, the Canadian Environmental Law Association, and OPAL’s hydrogeology and air quality experts. “Our powerful documents are a culmination of solid research and independent review of Walker’s flawed Terms of Reference,” says Steve McSwiggan, OPAL chairperson. “We have believed since our community was first notified of this obscene proposal that Walker would not be able to come up with a suitable plan to study our very unique and solid community.” Richard Lindgren, a CELA lawyer retained by OPAL, says, “In our opinion, the proposed Terms of Reference are excessively vague, fundamentally flawed and legally unacceptable. We therefore conclude that the Environment Minister has no choice but to refuse approval of the proposed EA process for the Southwestern Landfill.” Wilf Ruland, OPAL’s hydrogeologist, found Walker’s TOR and its supporting documentation to contain numerous major flaws and/or omissions. He brought to light, “The proponent (Walker) does not own the property on which they propose to site a landfill, and Walker has signed a secret agreement with the owner of the property (Carmeuse) which has unacceptable negative implications for the EA.” Ruland also highlighted that “Walker has failed to identify the Phase 1 Lake as a feature in the environment worth considering in the EA, even though the lake is teeming with life and is in fact the most significant environmental feature on the Carmeuse property.” Also, “The TOR and the EA Criteria fail to consider karst issues, even though it is obvious that karst enhancement of bedrock permeabilities is prevalent in the area,” Ruland wrote. “Despite numerous requests for a karst investigation during the public consultations, the TOR fails to respond positively to those requests.” In conjunction with other points, Ruland concluded: “Each of these flaws by themselves undermine the EA and could be considered grounds for rejecting the TOR. Taken together they amount to a fatal set of flaws which cannot be allowed to pass, making rejection of the TOR the only reasonable available option regarding this undertaking.” Emil Frind, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo, with over 40 years of experience in groundwater analysis, concurs with Ruland, saying, “The proposed landfill will be a very high risk operation….fractured rock is generally considered a poor host environment for landfills….Landfill liners, like all engineered systems, have a finite service life and eventually fail.” Ortech principal Stephen Thorndyke, OPAL’s air quality expert, also found Walker’s TOR deficient. He stated, “I have concluded from this review of the TOR, Supporting Document and Work Plan that the information given in these documents is grossly inadequate and does not, therefore, allow a complete or accurate assessment of the methodology described by the proponent [Walker Industries] for the proposed Environmental Assessment to be made.” McSwiggan observes, “Walker’s Terms of Reference is a vague and obscure document that has done nothing to address the concerns of our community. The TOR is full of Walker’s self-promotion. The content is superficial, often apparently cut and pasted from TOR documents used by Walker in the past for its proposals in other communities. Oxford County’s uniqueness and many important concerns expressed by residents to Walker have been totally left out of the corporation’s game plan. It seems evident that Walker’s priority is to exploit our community for Walker’s financial gain.” In OPAL’s written TOR response to the MOE, the volunteer organization of concerned residents observes: “One of the most harmful outcomes stemming from Walker Industries’ landfill proposal is that in order to defeat it, residents have to volunteer thousands and thousands of hours and dollars to execute an organized opposition. Since a community has finite resources of time, money and energy, all of the resources directed against Walker Industries’ landfill proposal are being taken away from positive community-building groups, causes and events. Through its TOR, Walker Industries’ sociological experts are evidently not studying that, nor do they propose to measure the resultant detriments to the community. Obviously, Walker Industries is not giving due care to Oxford County stakeholders and should not be approved to create and operate its landfill in the community.” McSwiggan remarks, “First and foremost, Oxford County is a vibrant, cultural, industrious, agricultural hub driven to excellence. This community does not want to play host to the problems of a mega dump. Our focus must be to attract and support businesses that thrive on sound technologies and are truly engaged in responsible environmental and social sustainability. This is our home. We’re not going to sell it out for garbage.” (Scroll to the bottom of the news release for links to our responses to the dump decision makers at the MOE!) opalalliance.ca/latest-news/opal-sends-comments-to-ministry-re-walkers-mega-landfill-plans
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 16:51:19 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015