The Township of Puslinch…

The Township of Puslinch Council submits the following comments:

That Council receive Correspondence item 10.5 regarding ERO 019-7636 Proposed regulatory amendments to encourage greater reuse of excess soil; and

Whereas the Township of Puslinch is in receipt of ERO 019-7636 Proposed regulatory amendments to encourage greater reuse of excess soil; and

Whereas Lake Erie Source Protection Region staff will be presenting an information report entitled “SPC-23-11-06 Proposed Regulatory Amendments to Encourage Greater Reuse of Excess Soil” to the Lake Erie Source Water Protection Committee which outlines their comments submitted to the Province regarding this ERO; and

Whereas the Township does not have a municipal water supply and accordingly is concerned with the protection of its groundwater for well water;

Whereas the majority of aggregate operations in the Township of Puslinch include below the water table extraction;

Whereas municipalities have no authority or enforcement abilities within ARA licensed areas including any accessory uses approved under the ARA licences such as an industrial recycle asphalt depot use;

Be it resolved,

That the Township supports the comments provided by the GRCA staff; and

That the Township does not support exempting aggregate reuse depots, and small liquid soil depots operations from a waste environmental compliance approval (ECA);

That the Township does not support recycling of asphalt on any sites including ARA regulated sites without having a properly designed holding facility to prevent the leaching of asphalt contaminants ultimately into the ground water in the appropriately zoned area; and further

That the Township does not support enhanced reuse opportunities for salt-impacted soil except as appropriately setback (to be defined by the Province) from agricultural and environmentally sensitive areas; and

That the exemption from an ECA and increase of volume of soil must be balanced by appropriate oversight and enforcement to ensure that operators are following their obligations under the Environmental Protection Act and other relevant legislation and policies. The province needs to ensure that strong monitoring and enforcement regime is in place; and

That the proposed changes would require mitigation of potential adverse impacts to the water body, however it is unclear if there would be a reporting obligation for this type of soil storage, or any monitoring of these soil sites. The province needs to ensure that there is an adequate monitoring and enforcement process in place; and

That Council supports the Province enacting legislation requiring generators of recycled asphalt to establish policies to maximize recycling of their asphalt within their jurisdiction; and

That this resolution be forwarded in response to the ERO posting, to the Minister of the MOECC, TAPMO, AMO, the Minister of MNRF and area MPP Rae and Speaker Arnott.