ACTION ALERT: Help Save the World’s Purest Water from Being Turned into a Dump Site

Updated July 14, 2009

Ontario’s Simcoe County is about to start dumping tons of garbage in a dumpsite being built on top of one of the world’s cleanest water sources – and we need your help to stop it.

Known as “Dump Site 41,” the landfill is located 120 kilometres north of Toronto in Tiny Township, which is part of Simcoe County. According to a recent Globe and Mail report, “If all goes according to plan, sometime this year trucks will begin dumping municipal trash into a provincially approved landfill atop the unspoiled water, which won its reputation as the cleanest in the world after testing at a German university in 2006 found that samples had some of the lowest levels of trace metals ever observed.” 

Dr. Jean-Daniel Berset, an analytical chemist in Switzerland, conducted additional water tests in May – the results of which were sent to Simcoe County councillors and officials – and said he has “never before seen such a clean groundwater.”

Water experts aren’t the only ones raising concerns about Site 41. The province’s Information and Privacy Commissioner and Environmental Commissioner have both intervened in the issue.

Information Denied
Despite repeated requests by the Site 41 Community Monitoring Committee (CMC), the county has refused to provide details of the Modflow data (groundwater flow simulation figures) – information vital to any decision about the safety or viability of the dump site.

Ontario’s Information Commissioner issued an order to the county to direct its consultant to provide the county with the Modflow records by June 26. The county’s consultant refused to release the data, calling it “proprietary information.”  An editorial in the Barrie Examiner notes, “So again, through its consultant, the county can be seen as blocking access to information Site 41 opponents want and feel they deserve to see."

Ontario's Environment Commissioner, Gordon Miller, says the battle over Dump Site 41 is a “political mystery.” In an article in the Toronto Star he questioned why the dump is being built now with engineering plans from the early 1990s. “If we were to start this process today, we would not build this site,” Miller said.

Despite Growing Opposition, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty Supports Site 41
Ontario Premier and Ottawa South MPP Dalton McGuinty has thrown his support behind Site 41 saying, “It’s never easy to locate these damn things…I have to rely on experts on issues as to whether we compromise the environment. The best advice we’ve received is it’s viable. There has been extensive work done to ensure we properly understand the impact of the landfill site…”

The reality is that Site 41 was approved by an extremely narrow margin – Councillors voted of 16-15 to approve it – based on a secret hydrological study, and in the face of strong community opposition. Site 41 must be stopped. It will destroy some of the world’s purest water, polluting and contaminating the local watershed for decades to come.

TAKE ACTION – Contact Dalton McGuinty
Please take action – help us make a difference. Write Dalton McGuinty at dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org on this issue and tell him to support a one-year moratorium using sample letter below.

WEB LINKS

• Visit canadians.org/Site41 for maps, photos, voting records and more.
• Sign the online Site 41 petition
• Join the Site 41 Facebook group
• Watch No Water to Waste

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SEND YOUR LETTER:

Subject
Recipient	dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
Compose your letter in the box below.
Premier McGuinty, You said about the landfill on Site 41 in Simcoe County that, “It’s never easy to locate these damn things…I have to rely on experts on issues as to whether we compromise the environment. The best advice we’ve received is it’s viable. There has been extensive work done to ensure we properly understand the impact of the landfill site…” And yet your environmental commissioner says “if we were to start this process today, we would not build this site” and your information commissioner has issued an order for a critical report (on the impact of the landfill site) to be released to the county, that still has yet to be released. Mr. Premier, please listen to your commissioners. Please support the Council of Canadians call for a one-year moratorium on Site 41 to allow for an independent peer review of the (Modflow) study on the safety of the dump, meaningful public consultations, and an assessment of the dump on a fuller criteria of provincial regulations, laws and local impacts. Sincerely,
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