This proposed site is to…

This proposed site is to store human waste in a converted form. Often this waste is coming from jurisdictions outside of Ontario. If built it will be impossible to control where the waste is coming from.

While it is called fertilizer - it is not traditional fertilizer that we are used to talking about. The run off from this product is of concern, as are the other materials (potentially hazardous) that are in it.

I am not opposed to farmers using the product, but stockpiling it in one location is not ideal.

These hazardous materials, in small quantities, would not matter if they are spread out over larger acreages and multiple years, but they should be of concern when stockpiled in one location.

Traditional fertilizers are stored indoors, in controlled environments, with cement floors, roofs, ventilation, and proper drainage to ensure that rain water does not ever reach the fertilizer product to create runoff. If this facility is to be allowed, the same rules should be applied. I think this would satisfy most people as it would control the odour and would also ensure that the product is stored safely.

In my opinion, in an ideal system, the human waste byproduct should be stored locally, in the municipality where it is generated, until it can be trucked and applied directly to farmer's fields. It does not make sense to double freight the product - once from Detroit, Windsor or Toronto, to a storage yard to stockpile large mounds of it, then truck it again to farmers fields, sometimes back close to where it originated. Any farmer who wishes to have the product applied to their farm should be willing to store that product on their farm directly. There is no need to have a central stockpile.

The reason for this stockpiling is that the human waste product is treated like a NIMBY, not in my backyard. The municipalities don't want to deal with it, and the farmer users of it don't want to have to prepare proper loading areas on their own farms so that it can be shipped in the off season. This is an incorrect approach. Let the cities store it over the winter, so that it can be trucked and applied to farm fields at the proper times of the year. Let each farmer who is purchasing the product prepare their own storage site on their own farm to take the product directly at the proper time.