Allow agricultural digesters…

Allow agricultural digesters to receive municipal SSO is a good option to divert organics from landfill but also comes with big risk to public in forms of truck traffic, odour, noise and public safety. As these projects do not have to follow the stricter technical and regulatory requirements, allowing them to expand twice and more of its current capacity will have profound impact on public safety and health.
We have recently seen the orders issued by MECP to Hamilton and Stormfisher facility that has prevented a big accidents.
However these facilities (agricultural digesters) are not equipped with technical capabilities to address the need for best safety standards for the scales that is being proposed.
We believe the government should balance the project between safety, use of innovative technologies, affordability and promote circular economy.
There are 68 municipal AD operating at 60-65% capacity under the stricter regime of MECP equipped with both competent technical staff and emergency response plans.
A balanced approach between small size Ag digesters and municipal digesters will preserve public health and safety and create more jobs and drive innovation.