MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
July 14, 2009

New Conflict of Interest Confirms Site 41 is Out of Control, says Council of Canadians

The Council of Canadians has learned that Jagger Hims, the company Simcoe County contracted for the groundwater analysis of controversial dump Site 41, was recently acquired by a company called Genivar – a major landfill developer. According to Genivar's website, "The firm is currently working on more than 25 sites across Quebec and has been directly responsible for the construction of 15 technical landfill sites". Jagger Hims is Genivar’s second acquisition of a company working on Site 41. Genivar also recently bought Henderson Paddon, hired by the County of Simcoe for all their Landfill Site designs including Site 41.

But the new Site 41 controversy doesn’t end there. In 2007, “Simcoe County hired Genivar Consulting Inc. to identify the business case for County Landfill Site 41…  Genivar Consulting has identified Site 41 as both safe and suitable for a new waste management solid waste facility,” according to a county newsletter.* Now Genivar, a company with a vested interest in building landfills, including Site 41 specifically, controls whether or not Jagger Hims releases the ModFlow (a widely used US Geological Survey computer-generated modeling system, also known as a Modular Three-Dimensional Groundwater Flow Model).

“In light of these revelations, Warden Guergis needs to call an emergency meeting of Simcoe County council, halt construction on Site 41, and put a one year moratorium in place immediately,” says Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow.

Jagger Hims, whose data interpretation Site 41’s viability is based on, has refused to release the ModFlow groundwater analysis to the public, the Community Monitoring Committee (CMC), or the Council of Canadians. Jagger Hims has even refused to comply with an order from the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (the order was issued just one week before Genivar’s May 20, 2009 announcement that it had acquired Jagger Hims). The pretext for Jagger Hims denying access to the ModFlow was their alleged independence, despite the fact that it is now a subsidiary of Genivar, a landfill industry company.

This in itself raises some serious questions about why Jagger Hims is refusing to release the ModFlow after being bought by a company engaged in the landfill business. It also raises new questions about potential bias, conflict of interest, and whether the ModFlow analysis is scientifically impartial, given Genivar’s direct financial interest in Site 41 proceeding. 

“For the members of Simcoe County council who have supported the dump in the past, this should sound the alarm that something is seriously wrong with Site 41,” says Barlow.

Jagger Hims was retained by Simcoe County to collect and analyze ModFlow from 1998 to 2006, required for the Site 41 provincial Certificate of Approval, but has never released the calibration data. Rob McCullough, Director of Environmental Services for the County of Simcoe made it known at the June 2009 CMC meeting that the recent Genivar purchase of Jagger Hims would make his job much easier as he now would only have to deal with one firm in the development of Site 41. 

* County of Simcoe, County Council Update. Issue 5, Page 2. January 2008.

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For More Information:

Dylan Penner, Media Officer, Council of Canadians, 613-795-8685, dpenner@canadians.org.

Background sources for editors:

• Genivar Announcement of Jagger Hims Acquisition: May 20, 2009
• Genivar’s Involvement in the Landfill Industry
• Simcoe County Overview of Genivar's "Site 41 - Business Case Analysis"
• Council of Canadians Background Information on Site 41: www.canadians.org/Site41