Approval sought for spreading of hauled sewage

Darlene Wroe

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

ARMSTRONG TOWNSHIP - The operators of a hauled sewage waste disposal site in Armstrong Township are now seeking an Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE) approval renewal for the spreading of hauled sewage.

Hauled sewage is waste material removed from portable toilets, sewage holding tanks, and septic systems.

The Environmental Registry of Ontario (ERO) has presented notice that comments are being accepted until May 24.

There are seven neighbouring properties within about a mile-and-a-half around the site at 145003 Hilliardton Road.

The storage lagoon operation at the property was first activated in November 2021. Approval for hauled sewage to be spread at the property has previously been sought and received, but some of the neighbours are still fighting to get all their questions answered and concerns satisfied about the operation.

The Speaker contacted the lagoon owners for comment but they did not reply before the paper’s deadline.

The neighbours are finding it very challenging that when an ERO notice regarding the property is posted, they are not notified.

Bruce Posch, who lives near the site, said most people do not regularly search the ERO new listings, but his wife Cheryl does.

On April 8, Cheryl noticed the ERO 019-8483 with ministry reference number 7462-D3HP58 was coming up with a 45-day comment period from April 9 to May 24.

DILIGENCE

The couple, as well as other neighbours, have learned the hard way that they have to be diligent when it comes to the ERO and the Ministry of Environment in relation to the operation in their midst.

In 2021, the hauled sewage site was activated without the knowledge of most of the neighbours. While the plan for the site was posted on the ERO, the majority of neighbours knew nothing about it.

Cheryl Posch said that it wasn't until they saw a sewage truck pull into the neighbouring property that they realized what was going on.

Several of the neighbours around the property fought against the project.

"Throughout everything that happened, aside from the health (impacts) and the real hard work certain people have done, we often felt that we were in this fight alone, and it did feel like a fight," Posch commented.

She commended neighbour Fred Barlow who she says "has done the lion's share and thank heavens for him."

The couple have already experienced occasions when the hauled sewage has been spread and have felt headaches and nauseated, they stated.

It would cost $700 to get their water tested properly, they said.

They are also contemplating leaving their home to get a room elsewhere when the spreading takes place.

"We shouldn't have to leave our house," said Bruce.

Even when the sewage is being dumped by trucks bringing the material to the holding site "you can smell it," said Cheryl.

Bruce also has raised concern about the water flow from the property, some of which he said would reach the Hilliardton swamp, which he added is sturgeon breeding ground.

Bruce doesn't believe the MOE looked in detail at the original application for the construction of the site.

Concerned neighbours have reached out to Timiskaming-Cochrane MPP John Vanthof who "has been a tremendous help in trying to get answers for us," said Cheryl. She added that only when he stood up in the legislature and spoke about the situation did the ministry start to act.

RESPONDING EARLY

Cheryl Posch commented that she first saw the ERO notice April 8, but it had disappeared the following day when she went to look at it again. She contacted the ministry about it and the listing reappeared, she said. But Bruce noted, "You can't leave those things to the end."

Previously, when he attempted to make a comment about a different phase of the project, he got his comment in on time but then was advised there were other steps he also had to take. While he continued to attempt to get those steps completed, he was advised the following week that he had missed the cut-off date. It was also suggested to him that he should get an environmental lawyer to present the appeal.

The project in Armstrong Township is a small one, acknowledges Posch.

"There are a lot bigger ones" across Ontario, and the Posches have no trust that they are being handled any better by the MOE.

"It's very dismaying," said Cheryl.

She said she wants people to know about the ERO.

"You might not think it concerns you. You might not think that spreading human sewage is a big deal," but hauled sewage is different, she said.

She also would like to be certain that the material is what it is said to be.

"Who can prove to me it is not coming from places where there is a crossover?"

She wants the MOE to be looking into that.

In a telephone interview, Vanthof commented that the current ERO is a good example of a project notification that would not be seen if someone was not looking for it.

"There have been several issues raised with the project and the ministry has had to move in and make the owner make major modifications," he said.

It was also seen that "the ministry was not fully aware of the conditions at the site."

QUESTIONS

With the current ERO, "We are submitting questions to the Ministry of Environment again and I spoke to the Minister of Agriculture and Food whether or not the proper application process had been done through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food regarding when you're using animal waste you have to have a nutrient management plan,” said Vanthof.

“When you are using a non- agricultural source material, which this is, you should have a non-agricultural source management plan, and we haven't seen one registered, so I have asked the minister whether that is the case and she has committed to get back to me.

“I have brought this issue up in the legislature several times," he said of the project, adding that he has "been disappointed, not in the actions of the individual people, but the overall response of the ministry. When I first raised it in the legislature that this wasn't a greenfield site, this was a former dairy farm with infrastructure under the ground, under the concrete, we were told by the ministry that, no, we were wrong, that this wasn't a former farm.

"That was blatantly incorrect, and that was the start of the process. That taints your feeling of the process, and taints the trust. The site was approved and was engineered and, based on comments raised by the neighbours and myself, the site had to be reconstructed."

Vanthof reflected back on the fight against the proposed Adams Mine landfill operation in the late 1990s and early 2000s in which waste was to be shipped from Toronto to an abandoned iron ore open pit south of Kirkland Lake. The proposal was to dump waste from the GTA into the site. That fight "was the reason I got involved in provincial politics," Vanthof said.

"We spent years trying to get the Ministry of Environment to explain things properly and do due diligence and in my opinion they didn't and based on this small site I don't think much has changed."

He said he is not the judge on whether the site is operated properly but "we should have the confidence in the ministry. That's their job, to ensure the site is safely operated."

Darlene Wroe, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Temiskaming Speaker