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Site 41 is ‘a waste of water, a waste of time and a mistake:’ MPP

BY Nicole Million   February 12, 2008 15:02

Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop is hoping a private members bill he plans to introduce to the Ontario Legislature will put a stop to Site 41 once and for all.

The bill, which he says parallels a previous one concerning the Adams Mine Lake Act, would see all approvals and applications for the controversial Site 41 dump withdrawn.

“(The Adams Mine) bill withdrew all applications and approvals of the mine dump because it claimed that with the water that flowed into the bottom of the mine, it made it a lake,” Dunlop told The Mirror.

The MPP’s bill would have the same effect regarding Site 41.

“My bill would see any approvals that the county or the proponents have received in the past reversed, and the county would be compensated with a negotiated amount so that county taxpayers wouldn’t be out money for the landfill.”

Dunlop introduced a similar bill back in 2005. With concern over the Walkerton tragedy – which saw seven people die from E. coli contamination of the drinking water in May 2000 – and over pumping millions of litres of water out of the ground at Site 41, Dunlop said he had no choice but to bring the bill back to the table.

While he admits having it passed could be a long shot, Dunlop says at the very least it would get a first reading.

“It’s a 50/50 chance (of having it passed), maybe even less, but it will be on the order paper again,” he says, adding he has had success with two previous private members bills in the past.

“I have a lot of confidence in the system and that it works pretty good around private members bills. If I can just get an opportunity to debate it … that would be even better.”

Dunlop says concerns facing Site 41 are no different than those faced in the Adams Mine Lake issue.

“They were ready to take the train up the highway and dump garbage, and then the government came in and, because of the water in the bottom, said it was now (considered) a lake. My argument with (Site 41) is if you dug a hole the size of Adams Mine Lake, which would be a three to four-acre hole in ground, I am quite sure it would fill up with water the same as Adam’s Mine did, and you could call it the Site 41 Lake.”

Dunlop says going forward with the controversial dumpsite would be nothing short of a mistake.

“Everyone has dug their heels in one way or another, but the reality of it is that Walkerton changed everything,” he says, noting since that incident, there has been a number of steps taken by the province and individual municipalities towards ensuring the same thing doesn’t happen again.

Dunlop says, with the introduction of the Clean Water Act, as well as having committees doing source water protection studies around the province, garbage should not be put in the ground at this site, particularly when millions of litres of water must be pumped out to keep it dry.

“It just a waste of water, a waste of time and a mistake,” he says. “Everything we’ve done around Queen’s Park and the environment has been about protecting the water, so to think we would put a landfill in there now is a mistake. We should admit we made mistakes and just move forward.”

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