Wellington County officials want to see fill dumping regulated by the province.
At its April 9 meeting, the county’s planning committee approved a resolution calling for the development of a “comprehensive strategy to regulate excess soils in the province” and to pass a Class Soil Act to help municipalities deal with excess soils under their jurisdiction.
The motion was endorsed by county council on April 30.
The resolution notes the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area’s continued growth generates increasing demand for places to dump its “unwanted excavated material.”
In the absence of regulated disposal control for excess soils each municipality is left to decide how to deal with the material.
The resolution asks the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change to spearhead the development of the strategy in consultation with the Ministries of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs; Finance; Municipal Affairs and Housing; Natural Resources and Forestry; and Transportation; as well as Conservation Ontario and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO).
The resolution will be forwarded for support to AMO, lower tier Wellington municipalities, the Greater Toronto Countryside Mayors Alliance, the Rural Ontario Municipal Association and the Ontario Good Roads Association.
“While fill can be valuable for construction projects,” noted planning committee chair councillor Andy Lennox, municipalities “pay the cost of some negligence,” when they end up accepting “contaminants from further down the road.”
Lennox said what is needed is “a province-wide approach with the necessary resources to enforce regulations.”
