by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com
October 4, 2004
Memo to Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality: When it comes to Toronto garbage, you may have been had.
On paper, Toronto City bureaucrats describe garbage being hauled to Michigan in "dry tonne".
But 164,430 wet tonnes were sent to Michigan last year alone.
Wet tonnes are composed of `biosolids', the bureaucratic term for sludge--or human waste. While biosolids are not technically defined as "hazardous waste", any 347-leachite test will prove biosolids have a high heavy metals content.
Toronto is shipping its sludge to Michigan for a reason: It has nowhere else to put it.
While Toronto politicians like Councillor Jane Pitfield boast that Toronto's garbage is clean, with no medical waste, pop cans and tires, sludge continues to be dumped daily at the Michigan landfill site.
The dirty mess of Toronto sludge being hauled to Michigan was exposed last Tuesday, by senior civil engineer Tony O'Donohue.
The dry tonnes for 2002 and 2003, touted by the City of Toronto Public Works Department are "not real figures", he says.
"at around 72 percent water, sludge should not be considered as solid waste and should require special handling," O'Donohue wrote in a letter to city council. "It should also be subject to special regulations if it is permitted to be dumped on landfill and should, under no circumstances be referred to as `dry tonnes'."
O'Donohue, a former Toronto City councillor, has been trying to get council to level with taxpayers about the $93 million "boondoggle", that is the quintessential story about how Toronto sludge ended up in Michigan.
"I am appalled at how we ended up with such a costly boondoggle. It is a bigger mess than the MFP fiasco. at least in that, the city got computers. In the sludge mess, the city demolished three of (their own) incinerator units—built a ($23 million) pellet plant, which after more than two years of testing, did not work and conveniently burned down. The end result is squandering $95 million and hauling the sludge to Michigan."
The deliberate mothballing of the incinerator units was conducted without even an alternate working plan in place to handle and market the daily production of `biosolids' (sludge); a move that O'Donohue says proved a "major failure".
Working for many cities in the world, incineration is an acceptable way to dispose of sludge. "Modern technology ensures that the flue gas byproducts meet acceptable standards. as well, Toronto Works Dept. staff have acknowledged that the incinerator was `very effective in destroying the odours produced in the plant', as well as producing steam to heat the plants' buildings in winter and the digestion process all year round."
The former city councillor is also requesting a report from the Michigan Coroner's office on the accident that claimed a man's life at Carlton Farms landfill site in Sumpter Township, Michigan on October 15, 2003.
Last October, a 38-year-old truck driver from Kitchener, Ont. hauled a tractor-trailer load of Toronto sludge to the Michigan landfill. When he tried to dump the sludge the tailgate refused to open. He went behind the raised box and tried to pry it open. It opened in a flash and sucked the driver into the pit.
"My understanding is that the sludge pit in Carlton Farms was about 10 to 12 feet deep—a treacherous depth," O'Donohue said. anything above one foot should not be permitted unless the pit is secured and properly fenced off."
Meanwhile, new Michigan standards that come into effect Oct. 30, banning medical and yard waste, pop cans and tires from cross-the-border garbage trucks, skip sludge.
The New Year of 2005 is just around the corner. The lowing of the cows and the bleating of the sheep will be heard in vast new pastures--the local council chambers across the land.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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