PUSLINCH – Council wants the province to help to shut down an application to create a new waste disposal site at a local extraction site where they've already been trying to prevent ongoing hydrovac operations they allege weren't approved.
In a new letter addressed to the Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks, MPP Ted Arnott and the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) local district manager, councillors were unanimous in their objections and fears about groundwater contaminant exposure due to a proposed waste disposal site and alleged ongoing hydrovac operations at 6678 Wellington Road 34 during a recent Puslinch council meeting.
They also requested the MECP ensure the site is rehabilitated following the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) to "protect adjacent landowners, the environment and groundwater from adverse effects."
Hydrovac operations involve using high-pressure water to deposit, drain and dry liquid soil with potential contaminants that can impact groundwater and require notification, reporting, and appropriate responses as outlined within the EPA regulations.
"There is no dispute that ECAs are required. The outcome of the OLT is final. The township is unsure why the MECP would not take enforcement action where an ongoing operation that otherwise requires an ECA is bringing in liquid soil every day," said staff in the report.
According to a new report, the owner and operator of Conestoga Badger Inc. and 2374868 Ontario Inc. have continued a daily hydrovac operation which the township said directly violates the property's extractive zoning without approved air/noise or sewage works environmental compliance approvals (ECA).
The owner's consultants have told township staff that the liquid soils imported and dried onsite are used almost exclusively to rehabilitate the extraction pit on-site.
Staff said this contrasts Compliance Assessment Reports filed by Capital Paving in 2022 and 2023 indicating no rehabilitation has occurred over the last two years and the site "is seemingly being used as a waste transfer site, with most or all dry soil presumably being shipped offsite."
2374868 Ontario Inc. previously appealed council's decision to refuse their application to permit transferring, storing and processing soil and aggregate materials from vacuum trucks "for the purposes of rehabilitation" to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) in March 2023 but the appeal was withdrawn last month.
Council said the withdrawn appeal finalized its decision that the property's zoning should remain extractive and hydrovac operations are not permitted- thereby opposing issuing any related ECA's.
If the MECP doesn't get involved, Mayor James Seeley said he's hopeful the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry will do something to "shut this down."
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
