Dear Editor:
As an owner of a farm operation I would like to alert you to the Ford government’s attempt to “water down” the already weak policies in place concerning waste disposal and water taking (i.e. ERO019-6951 and others).
These new potential policies will allow industries to start activities related to waste disposal and water-taking without public or government review of the proposed activity. Companies just have to register on the Environment Activity and Sector Registry (EASR) instead of going through the formal approval process now in place.
This change will not help the government improve Ontario’s environmental permissions. What will help the government is better public transparency with respect to hazardous deposal and better monitoring of industries involved in generating waste as well as taking water and/or disposing of waster water.
The government also recommends that aggregate operations are good candidates for the EASR pathway. The ministry as well as the public must be involved upfront in approving any activity related to stormwater and aggregate wash water used in aggregate operations. Removing any kind of public evaluation (ERO posting and commenting) via EASR before aggregate activities occur would be disastrous for the environment.
As a farmer I am already worried about negligent disposal/storage of wastewater or soil in pits with very little monitoring of impacts to water quality being completed by any ministry staff. Sector-specific rules were created for one reason: to protect the public and the environment. The aggregate industry and the government always state that aggregate extraction is an interim use of the land. The land cannot be returned to the same agricultural use designation and with quarries the land is lost permanently.
EASR use in aggregate operations is like letting the fox guard the hen house.
Stephanie DeGrandis,
Guelph/Eramosa