A Canadian Member of Parliament, David Sweet, wants the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to investigate alleged illegal soil dumping in Flamborough, near the City of Hamilton.
According to Mr. Sweet, a Conservative MP representing the federal riding of Flamborough-Glanbrook, the matter of illegal dumping requires the immediate attention of the federal government and the RCMP.
In a open letter to federal Minister of Public Safety, Ralph Goodale, and the federal Minister of Organized Crime Reduction, Bill Blair, the Flamborough-Glanbrook MPP claims that there is illegal dumping of soil at a garden supply store in his riding because of “alleged links to organized crime and related illegal activities.”
“This matter requires the immediate attention of the government and the RCMP,” he said in a letter to Bill Blair, federal minister of organized crime reduction, and Ralph Goodale, public safety minister.
The garden supply store has faced numerous environmental fines over the years. This includes in 2008, when it was fined $50,000 after it pleaded guilty to violations under the Ontario Environmental Protection Act and the Ontario Water Resources Act. The company was violating several conditions, including not monitoring its wells.
Recent scrutiny, however, has focused on the dumping of excess soil there. Neighbours say trucks arrive day and night and dump dirt there. Hamilton authorities say there’s an ongoing issue across the city with trucks dumping untested soil from GTHA developments on rural properties.
Proposed Ontario Rules on Excess Soil
Ontario is proposing changes to the excess soil management and brownfields redevelopment regime.
The changes are designed to “make it safer and easier for more excess soil to be reused locally…while continuing to ensure strong environmental protection” and to “clarify rules and remove unnecessary barriers to redevelopment and revitalization of historically contaminated lands…while protecting human health and the environment.”
The changes will include the development of a new excess soil regulation supported by amendments to existing regulations including O. Reg. 347 and O. Reg. 153/04 made under the Environmental Protection Act supports key changes to excess soil management.
Proposed changes include:
- clarifying that excess soil is not a waste if appropriately and directly reused;
- development of flexible, risk-based reuse excess soil standards and soil characterization rules to provide greater clarity of environmental protection;
- removal of waste-related approvals for low risk soil management activities;
- improving safe and appropriate reuse of excess soil by requiring testing, tracking and registration of soil movements for larger and riskier generating and receiving sites;
- flexibility for soil reuse through a Beneficial Reuse Assessment Tool to develop site specific standards;
- landfill restrictions on deposit of clean soil (unless needed for cover).
From an environmental perspective, the proposal’s call for some regulatory key points are quite beneficial. Registering and tracking the excess soil movement from excavation source to receiving site or facility will minimize illegal dumping. Transporting and illegal dumping of the excess soils is a source of concern because excavated soil is a source of trapped Greenhouse Gases (GHG).
The proposal is posted for comment on the Environment Registry until May 31, 2019. To read the full proposal, click here.
Quebec’s Action on Illegal Soil Dumping
The Quebec Government recently announcement that it will adopt the regulation that will include the implementation of a system in which the movement of contaminated soil will be tracked in real time. Under the tracking system, the site owner, project manager, regulator, carrier, and receiving site, and other stakeholders will be able to know where contaminated soil is being shipped from, where it’s going, its quantity and what routes will be used to transport it.
Contaminated soil will be tracked in real time, starting from its excavation, through a global positioning system. The system, Traces Québec, is already in place in Montreal as part of a pilot project.
The Quebec government also intends to increase he number of inspections on receiving sites. Furthermore, fines will be increased for those taking part in illegal dumping — from $350 to $3 million depending on the gravity of the offence, the type of soil and if they are repeat offenders, among other criteria.
