June 14, 2019 Email to: …

June 14, 2019

Email to: sanjay.coelho@ontario.ca
&
ebrfeedback@ontario.ca

Sanjay Coelho
Environmental Policy Branch
40 St Clair Avenue West, Floor 10
Toronto, ON
M4V1M2

ATTENTION: Sanjay Coelho

Re: Excess soil regulatory proposal and amendment to record of site conditions (Brownfields) Regulation (ERO #013-5000)

Please accept this letter as the Town of Caledon’s comments on the Excess soil regulatory proposal and amendment to record of site conditions (Brownfields) Regulation posted in the Environmental Registry of Ontario as ERO #013-5000.

General

Caledon is an attractive destination for excess soil from neighbouring GTA urban communities for several reasons, including:

• Its rural setting, countryside landscape, and location in relative proximity to urban GTA centres where many developments and re-developments occur.

• Large agricultural lands that require excess soil for grading, soil reclamation, replenishment, and other types of land improvements.

• The existence of aggregate pits that require excess soil for building berms, site grading and rehabilitation. More recently too, pits with depleted aggregate resources are been considered as suitable receiving sites for excess soil.

Comments

The Town supports the Province’s direction to consider excess soil as a valuable resource that can be re-used locally at source sites. Through these recent policies and amendments to regulations, the Province intends to eliminate the risk of contamination and reduce the cost associated with the relocation of excess soil to receiving sites for re-use. The removal of barriers to the redevelopment and revitalization of Brownfields will preserve valuable lands while protecting human health and the environment.

Notwithstanding, the proposed excess soil policy and regulations and amendments to O’Reg. 153/04 and Regulations 347 should be revised to address Caledon’s concerns related to the:

1. Additional costs that will be incurred by communities receiving excess soil due to the negative impacts of heavy trucks on roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

2. Increasing role for municipalities in the regulation, monitoring, and enforcement of disposal activities related to excess soil. Additional municipal resources will be needed to ensure that excess soil, moved within or imported into the municipality, is properly disposed. Currently, there are several incidents of illegal dumping of excess soil. Therefore, it will be necessary to devote extra manpower to monitor and enforce the movement of excess soil within the municipality.

3. Increase in the amount of traffic on rural roads which contributes to decrease in road safety as well as devalues the quality of life. Increase in the volume of truck traffic results in increase in the levels of dust and noise pollutions, and greenhouse gasses. Trucks emit larger quantities of greenhouse gases the longer they travel from source sites to receiving sites.

The Province should also consider the following Caledon’s recommendations:

1. Since the Province promotes the re-use of excess soil at source sites, the Regulation should determine and specify the minimum percentage of excess soil that proponents must re-use on-site. The Province and municipality should provide incentives for proponents who exceed the prescribed minimum percentage and impose penalties on proponents who are unable to meet the expected minimum requirement. The purpose of the incentive is to encourage re-use on source sites while discouraging excess soil that is trucked away to receiving sites.

2. Provide mechanism for proponents to separate and classify excess soils based on their types and qualities to ensure that quality top soils are re-used for agriculture and other beneficial purposes. The Province should maintain stringent policies to ensure that contaminated soil is disposed appropriately to protect ground water and the environment.

3. Provide municipalities with the powers to levy fee(s) related to disposal activities to enable them to recover costs and generate the additional funds needed to hire additional staff to monitor and enforce regulations as well as repair and maintain roads, bridges and infrastructure.

4. Allow municipalities to determine haul routes as it is currently the practice for aggregate operations. This will protect rural communities from the adverse effects of truck traffic.

The Town of Caledon’s comments can be accessed by clicking on the link below:
https://pub-caledon.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=4078

Sincerely,

Peggy Tollett
General Manager, Community Services
TOWN OF CALEDON

copy: Mayor and Members of Council
Mike Galloway, CAO, Town of Caledon
Sylvia Kirkwood, Manager, Policy & Sustainability, Town of Caledon
Region of Peel