Construction began on Site 41 this week, at the same time Simcoe County Council was told the county is scaling back on the project’s construction plans for 2007.

In a memo to council from Rob McCullough, manager of environmental services, council was informed that a number of circumstances have developed which will prevent them from going ahead with all activities.

“The chief reason was due to the lack of an environmental inspector by the Ministry of the Environment, which is necessary prior to construction,” McCullough wrote.

“Another reason is the poor condition of Baseline Road and particularly Concession 2 in terms of their ability to stand up to construction truck traffic necessary for the importation of on-site road building materials. Additionally, staff has been having difficulty obtaining the appropriate specified geotextile fabric ‘off the shelf’ for the liner trial.”

These issues, combined with the lack of construction season left, prompted consultants to reduce the work planned for 2007.

While the reasons look good on paper, local opponent to the site and Community Monitoring Committee (CMC) member Steve Ogden says things would have gone ahead as planned if the CMC hadn’t pointed out the county was breaking the Certificate of Approval (C of A) in June.

“The CMC tries really hard to make everybody follow the Certificate of Approval and the county and the ministry work very hard not to. They try and figure out ways to get around it. So, if we hadn’t said anything they could have easily gone right ahead,” Ogden told Simcoe.com.

“We asked them (at the CMC meeting), what about the environmental inspector? ‘Well, we’re working on it.’ We said, ‘Well, did you read the C of A? You’re supposed to consult with us.’ ‘Well, we are. We’re telling you we’re going to do it.’ Well, that’s not good enough and that shut them right down and that’s why they’re not in there.”

Deferred work includes the construction of the storm water pond and much of the on-site roads, ditches and berms. However, work will proceed with the liner trial construction methods. Because the storm water pond will not be developed this year, the liner trial will take place at the southern portion of cell 2 (to the south of cell one).

In the memo, McCullough noted that other related work could also take place including the placement of additional boreholes to investigate specific physical features, if necessary, and the capping of flowing wells.

Ogden said he’s concerned that the county hasn’t applied for a water-taking permit yet.

“To me, as a CMC member, I look at it and go, ‘OK, you haven’t applied for a water-taking permit. That means you’re not going to be going into the water. If you don’t go into the water, there’s no upward gradients. If there’s no upward gradients, you can’t build a dumpsite. So, why are you not applying for a water-taking permit?’”

But McCullough told Simcoe.com work conducted in 2007 will not require this type of permit.

“When we do a full-scale construction, where we have to do dewatering in the liner area, we will need that. We don’t need that now,” he said. “We might apply for the water-taking permit but it wouldn’t be required until next year. We might do that later this fall but it’s not required for the work we’re doing this year.”

The scaled down site work that will take place in 2007 will require an estimated 50 truck loads of material being delivered to the site.

“What we’re doing this week is bringing in the material we need to do the test liner construction and, over the next couple of weeks, that’s what we intend to be doing,” said McCullough.

While it’s not anticipated that the traffic volume will have a negative effect on the access roads, county staff will meet with staff from Tiny Township to discuss the access road issues before construction continues next year.