Waste storage in former turkey barns gains provincial support

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

by SUSAN MANN

Cash crop farmers Steve and Carolyn Rastorfer won’t appeal an Ontario Municipal Board ruling upholding Huron East’s decision allowing a company to store biosolids from a meat processing plant in farm buildings on land near Monkton.

Steve says “we’re done with it all.”

The Board released its decision April 9. It found the proposed use of the farm property related to agriculture and was consistent with the Provincial Policy Statement that encourages waste products to be diverted from landfill sites.

Ontario Greenways Inc. plans to store the biosolids from the Cargill Better Beef processing plant in Guelph in two former turkey barns on a 57-acre farm near the Huron-Perth County border. One barn is 60 feet by 250 feet in size. The other is 60 feet by 200 feet. The material would be spread on land during the summer and fall within a three to four-mile radius of where it’s being stored and used as fertilizer, it says in the Board’s written decision.

Ontario Greenways couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

The Board noted the project needs a certificate of approval from the Ministry of the Environment and the Rastorfers’ concerns about odour could be addressed as part of that process. 

Environment Ministry spokesperson Kate Jordan says they’ve received an application from Ontario Greenways for the handling and storage of non-hazardous waste materials. But it hasn’t been approved yet.

Steve doubts the ministry will address their concerns.

Ministry officials have two days to respond to a complaint, Steve says. “By the time the two days are up they (Ontario Greenways Inc.) will probably be done moving the stuff out of the barns.”

Jordan says the certificate would have conditions so the material can’t cause an adverse impact and that would include odour.

The ministry would take neighbour’s concerns into account before issuing the certificate.  “We would ensure that the company has plans in place to mitigate any concerns,” she says.

The public can complain to either a ministry district office or the 24-hour, seven-days-a week spills action centre, she says. For odour complaints, the ministry could send staff out to try and determine the source and require a company to take steps to mitigate the odour.
 
The Rastorfers and other neighbours are also concerned about runoff, rodents, traffic from the daily truck delivery of the material to the site and the movement of materials on the site by spreaders, the impact the project would have on area land values, and the adequacy of the former turkey barns to house the material.

Steve says he went to the processing plant to check out the material. He says officials have said the biosolids, which contains cow stomach particles, don’t smell. But it “really stinks.”

He adds that he can see the barns that will be used to store the material from his farm.

In its decision, the Municipal Board noted the municipality’s rush to make a decision gave the appellants the feeling their concerns weren’t given adequate consideration.

Carol Leeming, planner with Huron County which provides planning advice to its member municipalities including Huron East, says she didn’t think the decision was rushed. “There was a public meeting held (July 7, 2009) and the issues were discussed at that meeting.” BF