I am a resident of Brooke…

I am a resident of Brooke Alvinston and have experience with storage of these bio solids locally. Firstly the former storage facility by highway 402 that was shut down several years ago had the same proposed parameters as the Kerwood site. Bio solids were piled on that site more than 10 metres high and the volume covered at least 3 full football fields with little or no containment and the Environment ministry of Ontario allowed this complex to pollute the local area for years. Testing would still show contamination I am sure. I will be garnering samples today.

Secondly, the Applicant has for years dumped piles of biosolids in field entrances in the fall(surreptitious storage), to be spread in the spring and these piles are in no way covered or attended. One pile on Sexton Road, south of Churchill Line smoldered and burned the entire winter. As it was less than 1/2 mile from my home the smell contaminated my home and property the entire wet, winter and spring. The Applicant, after repeated complaints pushed the pile around several times, never fully extinguishing it, and just let the product run its course without a care to the neighbours.

Thirdly, just this spring the Applicant dumped and stored bio solids on the same property to the tune of three days of semi trucks with B-train tankers. The product volume would result in multiple hundred tons. Product remained untarped and stored for more than two months. On a hill top, directly uphill from a creek during the two major rain events this summer which dropped a combined amount of 8 inches of rain in a week. The Applicant made no attempts to tarp or stop drainage directly from the pile to the creek The ground where the product was stored is still black as coal with no attempts to restore the site. The Applicant has been excavating a site on the same farm for bout 2 months which I believe will be used for surreptitious storage of their product. This is occurring within sight of my home approximately 1/3-1/2 mile to the south. I will provide lunch to those that wish attend, please come on a southerly wind so you can get the whole experience of bio solid storage.

Fourthly, the Applicant transports the product in Semi tractor B trains which vehicles would surely exceed weight restrictions were they not considered, wrongly I might add, implements of farm husbandry. I have complained repeatedly to the Applicant about drivers using engine brakes in front of my home, note these brakes are applied 1/2 mile before they are turning, speeding, reckless driving and witnessed a loaded and unloaded truck almost collide, within inches, at the corner of Churchill and Sexton. With the expected truck traffic to the Kerwood site I would expect the above experience to get worse, not better. Only after informing the Applicant that I would use my direct contact in the OPP and MTO to address the matter were any effective actions taken.

After review of the site plan and proposed drainage I find it lacking at best. I am a licenced Plumber with 25 years of heavy commercial construction, before entering the legal field for the last 20 years, and I would laugh at the proposed install. The ground on the site is clay. When clay dries, much of the summer to the consistency of concrete, runoff follows the lay of the top surface as it takes inches of rain to begin to absorb. Due to the sites location this surface runoff is destined to flow directly into the Sydenham River. Don't care what an engineer says I was the one putting pipe in the ground and witnessed their follies daily.

A 2 foot wall cannot contain 7 feet of product and this can be witnessed at the Applicants present and past storage sites. The Applicant went to the effort of installing 16 ft fences on the home farm to stop neighbours from taking pictures of bio solid storage contrary to his permit. Further, the same facility has not a tarp in sight and is within 200 yds of a navigable stream.

For any consideration to be given to this product and storage it is my learned opinion both drainage wise and legally, this facility requires totally enclosed buildings to store the product, then the drainage as proposed may be sufficient. On this note the site is located within 1 mile of a outdoor wedding venue and a outdoor horse riding facility. An open storage facility would probably bankrupt both if the smell and noise pollution is even a fraction of the former 402 facility or what I have personally witness from my home experience.

The Applicant has litigated their way to this point by focusing on the townships that have little funding to fight these types of projects. Bio solids are human waste, lets be real and specific in that regard. There have been multiple incidents where the product caught fire after being exposed to rain water. When one can smell the product in storage from 1/2 mile,or more away, even when and if tarped it will have negative effects on local business.

Enclosure is the only option but I would like to see this waste from Michigan not even enter the country. Michigan and the US have stopped the spreading of this product in their country due to the toxicity of the product. How about Ontario has a critical look at the product. I do not see other toxic products stored and spread in manner such is occurring in our neighbourhood at the objection of all but the Applicant.

Cover it or refuse it, those are the wishes of those who have to live near piles of human waste. How many tons of shit fit in a 47 x247 foot bunker piled 7ft high times two, within 1/2 mile of the areas main watershed? Do your job to protect the environment and those forced to deal with this up to now illegal storage.

Please govern yourselves accordingly