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.
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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public pressure — has so far refused to make a formal request to the province to have the certificate of approval withdrawn.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.
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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.
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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

By Trey Granger Earth911.com
What’s your impression of plastic? Is it better or worse than other forms of packaging (such as glass, metal and paper), and how did you form this opinion? There is a lot of information distributed throughout the green world about plastic, and not much of it is positive. Before you write this material out of your life, let’s evaluate a few of the common plastic statements to see how true they really are.
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It won environmental approval more than two years ago, and has been pursued in Hamilton since at least 2004, but the proposed Liberty Energy sludge incinerator hasn’t started construction and may never happen. The sticking point appears to be the city’s plans to burn their own fecal material rather than pay a private operator to do it.
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Barrie Examiner

The following letter has been sent to Simcoe county councillors
Stantec, Simcoe County’s waste consultants, will receive about 1/4 of a million dollars of public money for preparing a Waste Minimization Plan (WMP), which concludes that County residents can only reach a meagre 76% diversion rate by 2029. These are the same “waste experts” who held public meetings to discuss strategies to solve our waste problems, while providing disposable products at the meetings! It is clear they are not focused on waste reduction.
County residents are already diverting over 50%. Stantec figures that it will take almost 20 years to divert another 26%. T’his is laughable! Honestly, it might be funny if public funds werent involved, and if people hadn’t spent over 20 years trying to stop a proposed landfill over a pristine aquifer, and if garbage wasn’t such a serious financial and environmental disaster.
There is no excuse for Stantec’s lack of attention to waste reduction, except that by maintaining a constant flow of garbage they continue to have a job.
Most residents are taking steps to reduce their waste by participating in all available diversion programs, and by avoiding wasteful products and packaging in the first place. And, like many people across Ontario, County residents are anxiously awaiting changes by the provincial government to further waste reduction by enforcing product stewardship programs, which will move Ontario into a Zero Waste future. Companies are already making changes to eliminate waste, and many municipalities are already diverting over 70% of waste and striving for 90-95% diversion.
So how can Stantec conclude that it will take Simcoe County residents almost 20 more years to divert another 26%? Maybe they aren’t the “waste experts” they claim to be?
Stantec should step into the 21st Century and accept that Zero Waste is the desired goal, because it makes financial and environmental sense, and it is what the people paying the bill want the goal to be.
Yours truly,
Kelly Clune

US critics worry about locations of lake level consultation hearings
By Dan Egan of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The level of Lakes Michigan and Huron has plunged some two feet since humans first dredged the massive river that flows from them, and a warming globe could lower the lakes further in coming decades, jeopardizing shipping channels, marinas and city drinking water intakes.
But to attend a series of upcoming public hearings on the shrunken lakes – and what to do about it – the more than 10 million people who live in southeastern Wisconsin and Chicagoland must brave a day on March roads to travel to little Sturgeon Bay in Door County or to Muskegon, Mich.
The hearings hosted by the U.S. and Canadian governments will focus on a controversial report that concludes the government should take no action to reverse unexpected water losses due to riverbed erosion after a 1960s Army Corps of Engineers’ dredging project on the St. Clair River, the main outflow for Michigan-Huron.
…Says Mary Muter, a member of the study’s citizen advisory board and a harsh critic of the study board and its conclusions:
“Maybe they don’t want the people of Chicago to know that the amount of water lost down the St. Clair River due to (recent erosion) is more than double what’s being lost down the Chicago River.”
The reversal of the Chicago River sucks 2.1 billion gallons a day away from Lake Michigan, much to the consternation of just about everyone outside of Chicago.
Its permanent impact on lake levels: about 2 inches.
The controversy started in 2004, when a Lake Huron property owners’ group released a $200,000 engineering study that alleged the Army Corps’ 1960s dredging scraped away the St. Clair’s rocky river bottom in a manner that helped unleash a large – and ongoing – water loss from Michigan-Huron.
The International Joint Commission, which oversees U.S. and Canadian boundary waters issues, responded by creating a binational study board – co-chaired by an Army Corps employee – to explore the issue.
Last spring, that study board released its draft findings that said a massive ice jam on the St. Clair River in 1984 was the most plausible explanation for scouring the river bottom and triggering enough erosion to cause a 3- to 5-inch water loss.
“We have no other explanation,” study team co-chair and Army Corps career employee Eugene Stakhiv said at the time.
Muter’s group and some conservation organizations were instantly skeptical of the ice jam theory. They were also critical of the fact that the study team reached conclusions before it publicly released – and in some cases even completed – the scientific studies that presumably drove them.
The study team spokesman responded to the criticism by saying it was coming from a group of self-interested residents trying to capitalize on the lakes’ natural low-water cycle to win public support for a river restoration project that would benefit them.
“Ultimately, the crisis mongers will look foolish when the lakes return to normal levels, albeit at somewhat different relative levels than in the past,” study spokesman John Nevin said last spring. “That’s why they want action now before Mother Nature proves them wrong.”
But by December it was the study board that was proved wrong on its ice jam hypothesis, concluding in its own final report that the 1984 ice jam “was not the key contributing factor” to the riverbed erosion. The final study offers no definitive cause for the erosion.
Full story
FOTTSA meeting on IJC report, 7 p.m. on Wednesday March 10, Brian Orser Hall, upstairs in the Penetang Memorial Community Centre 61 Maria St., Penetanguishene
IJC public consultation , 7 p.m., Monday March 22, North Simcoe Sports and Recreation Centre, Community Hall A, 527 Len Self Blvd. Midland