Winhara Contaminated soil…

Winhara Contaminated soil treatment plant. ERO# 019-8211

This message will echo the concerns and questions of the residents who live on Winhara road and the residents of Muskoka, who DO NIT agree with the proposed contaminated soil treatment plant set to undergo on Winhara road.

I have lived on Winhara road for 10 years in my husband’s childhood home. We are raising a young growing family on what we thought would be and has always been a quiet rural road. Our home is located almost on top of the proposed treatment site. We have been dealing with the ongoing construction as politely as possible.
On February 27th a blast from the construction site sent a flying piece of blast mat through our trees and onto our property between our garage and house. On top of the dangerous conditions we have had to deal with, my daughter is scared to go outside (for good reason) and of the unannounced booms and cracks when they do light off the explosives. We have had no air horns to announce the blasts since they started. On top of the blasting disregard, the company there has taken liberty on our kindness and has encroached on our property by piling trees and leaving survey fencing and blast rock on our side of the property line. With this being said my main concern is the total lack of site management in just the building phase of this area. If this is how the site is managed now how can I trust that we will be protected from contamination or noise bylaws once this proposed contaminated soil treatment plant is put into effect?

Winharas current road infrastructure cannot withstand the amount of trucks that will be hauling heavy loads to the plant. Our road was newly paved a couple years ago and is still not the best of roads to travel on.
This proposal states that maximum waste volumes for soils would be 1800 tonnes per day in phase 3. That is a lot of trucks for our tiny residential road with no side shoulders. Will the trucks coming from other areas of Ontario know that this is a residential area with a lot of families? Information from my neighbours who have worked for treatment plants have mentioned that the truck convoys often wait to be received by the plant by lining up on the side of the road. With our home being so close to the treatment facility will the trucks be lining up directly outside my house?

This proposal also states the hours of operation for this plant are 7am-7pm Monday to Friday and 7am-3pm on Saturdays. Will my children have to wait for their school bus between a convoy of dump trucks laden with contaminated soils? Will they have to return home to this as well? What protects my children from dust, noise and vibration pollution? Will my children be able to ride their bikes down the road, like every other kid can? I can see this being a massive safety issue for children as well as the residents who use the road for walking their dogs and running, as we are on a rural road there are no sidewalks. Out of town cyclists have also taken up using our newly paved backroad as a place to get out of town and onto a quieter road.

The intersections on both sides of Winhara road are often busy and backed up from the highways to begin with. We see at least a few accidents some serious, there already a year. With the added dump truck traffic, I can see another safety concern as well as a longer wait time and congestion at these intersections especially on Friday afternoons when the seasonal residents arrive for the weekend.

I am also concerned about my property value! No one wants to live beside any type of contaminated treatment plant. People who move here looking for a quiet and friendly rural neighbourhood will look over moving to our area for their just fears of noise, traffic and contaminated water. Most if not ALL residents on Winhara road are on well water, where I live the water table has always been very high. This Contaminated soil treatment plant makes me nervous for my water quality. An accident at the plant (even if non - hazardous) could be detrimental to my only water supply as well as most of the residents close to the site. What happens if there is a water contamination? What happens and how will it be handled and remedied? Where will the water that is used by the site come from? Will the water the facility uses be taken from the surrounding aquifer? Will that affect the water the neighbourhood has access too?

On the topic of water, the entire backside of the lot is swamp lands which leech into the Lake Muskoka watershed. The area around this proposed site is wetlands and other bodies of water. This area and its waters are home to turtles, moose, and beavers. Migratory birds such as geese, ducks and sandpipers have been using the area as breeding grounds for years!
Again, if there was to be an accident it concerns me about the wellbeing of the water and animals that Muskoka prides itself in.

And the last thing is the lack of transparency and communication the ERO, Terranevo and the town of Gravenhurst has had with regards to this. The people of Winhara are only just hearing about this. Most of us heard about for the first time on March 12th and we only had until the 16th to comment, we have since been given until the end of the month. This seems rushed and as if someone is trying to hide important information regarding our homes, health and neighbourhood.

I understand why a facility like this is needed, and that it generates jobs in our community but I do not understand why it is proposed on a quiet residential area, close to wetlands and where all the inhabitants are on well water. This type of facility belongs somewhere like Industrial drive, or close to one of the waste facilities we already have in Muskoka which is all commercial, can handle the extra heavy - duty traffic and comes with no threats to a neighbourhood or its water supply.

Sincerely,
An extremely concerned Winhara resident and mother.