I am concerned about the…

I am concerned about the proposal to develop a private waste processing and transfer plant, with a biogas anaerobic digestion system, at 633 Coronation Drive.

The community will be adversely affected by the proposed operation, which will have 20 times as many trucks as the proposal that was turned down by the Biosolids Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Highland Creek Treatment Plant. In addition, the Coronation Plant proposes to process up to 900,000 tonnes of wet rotting waste annually, which is 6 times as much as the entire City of Toronto. This must mean that it will be shipped in from surrounding areas - hence the increase in truck traffic.

While both the City of Toronto waste management plants are surrounded by industrial areas with direct major road access to 400 series highways, the proposed Coronation plant would be within 200m of residential homes, within 500m of parks and within 700m of schools. The 6 or 7 kilometre trip to the 401 (depending on the route ) by more than 200 trucks per day would pass hundreds of homes, several schools (primary, and secondary), the University, seniors living facilities, shopping malls, fire/police stations, and community centres. This is dangerous for the residents of this community.

The Proponent is planning to truck in putrescible waste (wet decomposing waste) that may include but not be limited to: rotting food, plant waste, animal waste and human waste, and then after processing on site, ship out the residual biosolids and non-processed materials for land application or dumping. This means that there will be noise from the processing plant operating 24/7/365, from heavy trucks entering and leaving the site, and significant emissions and odours from the plant and the trucks which typically are large dump trucks with the tarp covering. The smell from the putrescible wastes will then affect the immediate area (within a few km of this site) and also the route to the 401 (Beechgrove/Port Union or Manse/Morningside likely). In addition to this the area will be assaulted by excessive noise, and vehicle GHG emissions. The current number of trucks using either Beechgrove or Manse to get to 401 from Coronation Dr daily is less than 100, this proposal will at least triple the amount of trucks using these routes.

The gases emitted from the plant are also of concern. In an era of climate change, it makes no sense to allow a company to ship waste from anywhere in Ontario. Already the proposal indicates that there will be 10,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases (mainly from carbon dioxide) from heavy truck emissions but this is assuming only an 80km trip per truck (typically from small communities and to farmland), if 6 times the amount of waste from Toronto is expected every year the incoming truck routes will have to reach far beyond the outskirts of GTA, and significantly add to these greenhouse gas emissions.

Other noxious gases will also be emitted by the plant in this residential area. A December 2019 study showed that there will be up to 35% of ministry accepted levels of nitrous oxides, 69% of ministry accepted levels of sulphur dioxide, up to 21% of ministry accepted levels of particulate matter, up to 40% of ministry levels of methane and up to 70% of ministry levels of total reduced sulphur in addition to the already mentioned, but unquantified (in the previous paragraph) 301% of ministry accepted levels of carbon dioxide. All six of these gases are considered significant amounts by ministry guidelines.

Due to all these concerns to the residents of the area around the plant and reaching up to the 401 (for the truck passageways), I submit that this proposal be rejected. Bigger is NOT better when concerns such as climate change and air pollution are factored into the equation. Bigger is only better for the economic gain of the owners. Plants such as this need to be smaller and more closely located to the raw materials that are being composted.

In dealing with this proposal, however, if it is not rejected out of hand as it should be, there needs to be a public meeting for the local communities and a Toronto Public Health study of the health impacts of this proposal on the affected communities, and a City of Toronto Traffic Management study to assess the impact of the significant additional heavy truck traffic in residential neighbourhoods.