I live in a retirement…

I live in a retirement community next door to the Tottenham Airfield Corporation (TAC) site when I first came here fourteen years ago it was a little used rural grass airfield. We are on the Oak Ridges Moraine and it was a beautiful rolling landsacape which had been protected by the Provincial government - or so we thought.

However that enforcement of that protection was handed down to our small minimally funded New Tecumseth Council. They did not have the knowledge, skills or incentive to go up against corporations who were intent on exploiting apparent loopholes and were willing to totally destroy our protected lands.

Besides being an unspoilt rural area it is the source of the water for the aquifer that provides our drinking water. Since they started to convert the airfield to a land-fill site we have had thousands of truckloads of unknown soil dumped here. Because of inadequate monitoring and a weak system of checking the soil make-up we know we have had soil contaminated with lead and PCB dumped there.

Although the Town eventually reached an agreement with the TAC to manage the fill it seems to be largely written in favour of TAC and enforcement is weak.

We need to have regulations that hold the original source site more responsible for their soil exports and more efforts to dispose of it in a manner with minimal environmental impacts.

We need the provincial government to use stronger powers to help small municipalities control these corporations. Central knowledge and expertise should be available to assist rural councils who cannot afford them.

It is not right that the provincial government creates great laws that protect the environment but expects the rural communities to administer and enforce the regulations alone.

[Original Comment ID: 209829]