A Town Hall meeting will be held in the morning of the Elmvale Foundation’s World Water Day celebration March 28 to discuss/disseminate information related to how the County initiatives related to future “waste”stream management might impact on water source protection.
Simcoe County residents and people with expertise in the area are welcome to attend and contribute. Dr. William Shotyk, a founder of the Elmvale Foundation, will present a summary from Denmark, prepared by Dr. Mike Goodsite, professor of environmental chemisty at the DMU (National Environmental Research Institute, Aarhus University.
According to a recent survey by the BBC, Denmark leads the European Union in waste diversion, at 94 per cent. The attached 2009 EU report, Diverting waste from landfill – Effectiveness of waste‑management policies in the European Union, provides an analysis of policy measures in six countries or regions, including Denmark.
Diverting waste from landfill
For more information about World Water Day in Elmvale visit Elmvale Foundation

The following open letter to Premier Dalton McGuinty appeared in the Barrie Examiner

Ontario’s Minister of the Environment, John Gerretsen, is either uttering hollow words to fool the people, or he is as confused about the role of the MOE as many Ontarians.
In the legislature on March 1, Gerretsen said, “Within the ministry of the environment, we’re only concerned about three things: No. 1 to have the cleanest air possible in the province of Ontario, to have the cleanest water possible in the province of Ontario and to have the cleanest land possible. We are working on it on a day-to-day basis and we will continue to do so because environmental protection for the health and safety of Ontarians is paramount.”
Gerretsen’s words imply that our MOE is committed to pollution prevention. However, a representative of the MOE recently explained that “the role of the MOE is not to prevent pollution, but rather to ensure that acceptable levels of contaminants are not exceeded.”
There is a problem when the minister and the MOE staff have a different understanding of the role of the MOE.
If the MOE is serious about protecting our air, land and water, as Minister Gerretsen claims, then we should expect to see some positive changes in Ontario very soon.
To demonstrate the commitment to protect our environment, and not merely license pollution, the MOE should immediately revoke the certificate of approval for Site 41 in Simcoe County, ensure that a proposed incinerator in Durham Region is not given authorization to burn garbage, and expedite changes to the Waste Diversion Act to ensure full product stewardship policies, waste reduction goals, and strong enforcement, which will move Ontario into a zero-waste future.
These are just a few ways that the MOE can prove to the people of Ontario that the air, water and land are a top priority for this government.
Please Mr. Gerretsen, put your words into action.
Kelly Clune Orillia

By Kate Harries WaterWatch
Christian Peacemaker Teams members are mourning the death yesterday of their founding director Gene Stoltzfus in Fort Frances, Ontario. He was 70 years old and had been at the helm of CPT from its founding in 1988 until he retired in 2004.
CPTers arrived at the gates of Dump Site 41 last summer as part of their aboriginal justice violence reduction project. Their quiet yet constant presence helped calm emotions while strengthening resolve as SDS1 supporters stood firm, vilified by some at Simcoe County and under constant threat of arrest by the Ontario Provincial Police.
The non-violent action of the Anishinabe Kweag, local residents and cottagers resulted in a halt to construction and the decision by County Council that there would be no dump at Site 41.
But there were many times when it looked as if success was impossible. The CPT was there, and CPTer David Milne was one of six arrested at a blockade August 17 – after the Parnell flow had turned silty for the first time in memory and protesters were trying to get answers from Simcoe County and the MOE. Instead of an explanation, the OPP appeared in force to drag people away from Gate 2 so that the accelerated effort to get the dump opened could continue. (Charges against a total of 18 people were subsequently stayed or dropped.)
CPT joined with us to call for the withdrawal of and an apology for a racist news release issued August 20 by Simcoe County alleging protesters in bandanas had intimidated county staff. The OPP confirmed there was not a shred of truth to this fabrication by the Simcoe County communications staff. After CPT launched a petition, the release was taken off the county website but no apology was ever offered.
CPTers have been at flashpoints across Canada, including Grassy Narrows, Ont., Burnt Church, N.B., and Sharbot Lake, Ont. Their members have been and are on much more dangerous missions around the world – Iraq, Columbia and At-Tuwani on the West Bank. Canadian Jim Loney (who joined us at the Site 41 protest camp) was one of four taken hostage in Iraq in 2005. Three were released the following year but American Tom Fox paid with his life for his commitment to peacemaking.
The world is a better place for the likes of Gene Stoltzfus and his successors.
CPT website

NDP alleges new law benefits Barrie investors who attended fundraiser
By Rob Ferguson Toronto Star
New Democrats charge that Barrie-area developers who attended a $5,000-a-plate fundraiser for Premier Dalton McGuinty got a lucrative deal that could make them millions through a new provincial law ending a development freeze on land they own.
McGuinty dismissed any connection between the dinner held in May 2008 and the Barrie-Innisfil Boundary Adjustment Act passed last spring, which NDP justice critic Peter Kormos said has increased the value of the land south of Barrie by about $30 million, going by current market values.
McGuinty said the suggestion from Kormos that the Liberals were taking cash from developers in return for favours is wrong.
“I understand where my honourable colleague is going on this matter, and I reject his allegations and his not-so-subtle accusations completely and thoroughly,” McGuinty told the House on Wednesday.
The law “is based on solid growth and planning principles,” he added.
Municipal Affairs Minister Jim Bradley said the land decision was made based on a report from an independent facilitator mediating a dispute between Barrie and neighbouring Innisfil Township. But Bradley’s office would not release the report.
The new law, which took effect Jan. 1, transferred a swath of land – about 12 kilometres wide and up to three kilometres deep straddling Highway 400 south of Barrie – from Innisfil to the fast-growing city on the shores of Lake Simcoe.
Kormos said some developers paid as little as $26,000 an acre for land that is now being advertised at $75,000 per acre.

SDS41 NOTE: Sound planning principles? Read how a senior provincial planner described the sustainability disaster that’s shaping up in South Simcoe:
Planner slams Simcoe sprawl
Victor Doyle comments on Simcoe County growth plan

From a critique of the Harper budget by Brent Patterson of the Council of Canadians:
WATER
While the government acknowledges that “millions of Canadians depend on the Great Lakes for their drinking water” and says that “cleaning up the Great Lakes is a key objective of our Government’s Action Plan for Clean Water”, the government allocates a mere $8 million a year to Environment Canada to “implement its action plan to protect the Great Lakes”.
In contrast, at the end of last year, the US Congress authorized $475 million to be spent on cleaning up the Great Lakes. In February, US President Barack Obama proposed another $300 million into this program. And just this past October the Harper government lobbied the US Environmental Protection Agency to weaken and delay their tough new measures against ship-diesel exhaust on the Great Lakes aimed at reducing the health toll from air pollution. The federal government is simply not serious about protecting the Great Lakes.
With respect to water in First Nations communities, the government says it “will undertake a comprehensive review of its current approach to financing First Nations infrastructure” in order to “support access by First Nations to alternative sources of financing, and approaches to improve the life-cycle management of capital assets”. This raises the spectre of private-public partnerships and all-out privatization, rather than the public provision of water and the recognition of the human rght to water.
And while taking no real action to protect or conserve water, the budget allocates $18.4 million over two years to the Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators initiative, which the government says “produces a coherent set of indicators on water quality, air quality and greenhouse gas emissions over time.”
Full critique

McGuinty to sell out Ontario and put water at risk, says Council of Canadians
Toronto – The Council of Canadians is deeply concerned with the McGuinty government’s support for policies that put water in Ontario and abroad at risk, following today’s Throne Speech and is questioning whether the Premier is actually committed to protecting water, given his emphasis on privatization and ‘tech fixes’ that create more problems than they solve.
Full story

The Independent
IBM researchers on Tuesday said they have discovered a way to make Earth-friendly plastic from plants that could replace petroleum-based products tough on the environment.
Full story

Stephen Ogden is one of the speakers at the Council of Canadians Toronto Chapter’s Water Forum 2010 on Saturday, March 20. He’s on from 10:15-10:30 a.m., talking about our “Citizen Activism Success Story – The Saving of Site 41.”
Other speakers include Stephanie Hawkins of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, John Hall of the Hamilton Harbour Remedial Action Plan, Lino Grima of Centre for the Environment, Arlene Slocombe of Wellington Water Watchers, Kim Gavine of the Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation, Deb Crandal of the STORM Coalition, Cindy Mayor of the Hamilton Conserver Society and Citizens for a Safe Environment, Joe Cressy of the Polaris Foundation and John Jackson of Great Lakes United.
Location: Metro Hall, Room 308/309, 55 John Street, Toronto. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. Finishes at 5:30 p.m. Free! Everyone is welcome.

End of legislature session kills bill to withdraw approval
By Gail Swainson Toronto Star
Opponents of a controversial garbage dump north of Barrie are warning that Premier Dalton McGuinty’s prorogation of the legislature — which killed a private member’s bill that would have permanently revoked approvals for Site 41 — leaves the door open on a revival of the controversial landfill proposal.
“Until the province revokes the certificate of approval, county council could still sell the site to a private developer or develop it again themselves,” Anne Ritchie Nahuis, a local farmer and dump opponent, said Monday.
Simcoe County council — which voted to scrap the dump last fall following intense public pressure — has so far refused to make a formal request to the province to have the certificate of approval withdrawn.
Provincial Environment Minister John Gerrestsen said during question period in the legislature last week that the province would revoke the certificate of approval if only county politicians would formally ask.
“If the County of Simcoe were to ask us, we would do that,” Gerrestsen said. He also said the dump is, “from a scientific viewpoint, an appropriate site,” a comment that enraged opponents.
Full story

Back to square one for Site 41 legislation
By Travis Mealing Midland Mirror
MIDLAND – When Bill 32 passed second reading in the Ontario legislature in November, Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop trumpeted the moment as a triumph for Joe Public.
Now, he’s worried Joe Public is about to be stepped on by Premier Dalton McGuinty.
…“The premier insists nothing will be lost because of prorogation, saying every single one of their bills will be preserved, but he neglected to mention the fact that a number of private member’s bills … will be lost,” Dunlop stated in a press release.
“McGuinty’s decision to pull the plug is disappointing for not only me, but the thousands of constituents in Simcoe North who have worked so hard with me on Bill 32.”
Dunlop, who called the move a “slap in the face” to ordinary folks who successfully changed county politicians’ minds on the issue, said he plans to reintroduce Bill 32 at his first opportunity.
“Dalton McGuinty’s tactics will not deter our efforts to remove the certificate of approval on Site 41,” he said.
Full story

WaterWatch report
Last night’s suddenly called special meeting of Midland council (councillors were not advised it was happening until late Friday) provided few answers regarding the toxic plume leaching from the North Simcoe waste transfer station (a former dump) on Wilson Rd.
However questions prepared by Councillor Stephan Kramp reveal a nine-year history of compliance issues and a lack of enforcement by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment of its regulations.
“Personally I believe this is demonstrates how the MOE B7 Reasonable Use Guidelines mean absolutely nothing,” commented Stephen Ogden, who attended the meeting.
”The County has demonstrated they can easily ignore the regulations without any regard to the Ministry’s concerns. Remember the County’s reliance on B7 at Site 41 if the liner failed? Site 41 was going to leak and the MOE appears to be powerless to protect our environment regardless of Environment Minister John Gerretsen’s promises.”
Midland councillors did not have the most recent 2009 Interim Monitoring Report on the site, prepared by Jagger Hims (Genivar) for Simcoe County.
Councillor Stephan Kramp was able to access a copy – as well as earlier ones – and prepared a series of questions regarding a number of instances in which problems identified as far back as 2002 by the Jagger Hims report and MOE staff have not been addressed by the County.
For instance, in 2002, there was correspondence between the County and the Ministry regarding acquisition of a contaminant attenuation zone (CAZ). The ministry also noted that its B7 Reasonable Use Guideline were being exceeded north and east of the site for several parameters including TDS, Iron, Manganese, TCE, Vinyl Chloride.
“The Ministry cannot continue to review reports indicating exceedances without actions being undertaken,” a letter stated in 2006.
Furthermore, the County is refusing to investigate the sources of TCA (trichlorethylene, a solvent that’s a known carcinogen). The County’s Technical Compliance Supervisor Kimberly Pickett told the MOE in a May 15, 2009 letter: “Our consultants have determined that the TCE concentrations are not landfill related, and it is not our responsibility to find other sources.”
No MOE staff attended the special meeting.
The County was represented by Environment Services Director Rob McCullough and Pickett.
McCullough explained that the County needs an agreement with Midland and Tiny to address the movement of leachate from the former landfill and comply with an MOE requirement – first communicated in 2002 – that it set up a contaminant attenuation zone (CAZ) and track the plume.
Tiny council approved its part of the Wilson Rd. deal without question.
Kramp supplied his questions to all members of Council and apologized for not having provided them in advance, however he did not have the documents.
He explained that many of his questions were directed at the MOE and was disappointed that they were not in attendance.
Mayor Jim Downer directed that Kramp’s questions be answered by McCullough in writing and the Ministry would be given a copy of the questions for their response.
McCullough was unable to advise Council where the outer limits of the toxic plume are at this time.
Kramp reminded council that Simcoe North MP Bruce Stanton is committed to take steps to ensure independent monitoring to measure the threat to Penetang’s source water.
Councillor Stephan Kramp’s questions for the MOE and Simcoe County

Tuesday March 9 to Wednesday March 10
First Nations Water Symposium, a drinking water quality and awareness event, Hilton Hotel, Niagara Falls, ON. Maude Barlow is a keynote speaker Tuesday, More info
Wednesday March 10
Simcoe County Corporate Services Committee meets, 9 a.m , Administration Centre, Hwy. 26, Midhurst
The Federation of Tiny Township Shoreline Associations will be hosting a meeting to hear expert assessment of the IJC’s Upper Great Lakes Study’s Final St Clair River Report, at 7 p.m., Brian Orser Hall, upstairs in the Penetang Memorial Community Centre. The Study blames climate change for most of the drop in Georgian Bay water levels. Reexamination of the study’s own data suggests otherwise.
Thursday March 11
Site 41 Community Monitoring Committee meets, 7 p.m., 130 Balm Beach Rd. W., Perkinsfield
Saturday March 20
Spring into Action meeting to prepare for October municipal election, 10 a.m. to 12 noon at the Barrie Methodist Church, 284 Cundles Rd. East, Barrie. Breakfast provided. Help make a difference in your community. This is for anyone who resides anywhere in Simcoe County! All welcome. RSVP – email mrcinc@interlog.com, telephone: (705) 361-2371
Monday March 22
International Joint Commission (IJC) public consultation meeting on its Upper Great Lakes Study’s Final St Clair River Report. The report recommends that measures to remediate the increased water-carrying capacity of the St. Clair River NOT be undertaken at this time. 7 p.m., North Simcoe Sports and Recreation Centre, Bill Thompson Room, 527 Len Self Blvd, Midland More info
Tuesday March 23
Simcoe County Council meets, 9 a.m , Administration Centre, Hwy. 26, Midhurst
Wednesday, March 24
Water On The Table – a documentary that shadows water-warrior Maude Barlow at the controversial tar sands in Alberta, in the halls of the United Nations, and protesting Site 41 – a local issue with global resonance. Premieres on TVO at 10 p.m.
Saturday March 28
The Elmvale Foundation will be hosting a World Water Day celebration at the Community Hall in Elmvale. All welcome. More info, contact info@elmvale.org. or go to www.elmvale.org/wwd.
Monday March 29
Simcoe County waste strategy steering committee meets, 9 a.m , Administration Centre, Hwy. 26, Midhurst