As I have written previously, many municipalities with rural countryside are dealing with the risk of their open spaces being selected as “hosts” for large scale fill derived from the big holes being dug in the City of Toronto.  As there is a serious regulatory gap for the safe management of fill, the receiving municipalities often find themselves being very reactive and not necessarily well prepared to gain real control over what is happening.  Even if the fill is wanted, there is lack of clarity on quality i.e. what criteria should be used to determine if the fill is the “right stuff” for that land.  Given this, Scugog Township and Kawartha Conservation hosted a symposium January 25^th.  Here’s a testimonial to the magnitude of the problem:  nearly 300 people attended!

Environmental Commissioner, Gord Miller, was a key note speaker.  Credit goes totally to him for a couple simple ideas.

• The source of the problem is all the big holes! One of the long-term solutions has to be reducing the amount of fill being shipped out of Toronto.
• Another long term solution is an effective plan for storing fill for several years to enable it to be effectively reused. (see further below comments from de Baeremaeker)
• To reduce the amount of fill Mr. Miller questions the lack of incentive to NOT produce fill.  e.g. Zoning demands floors of underground parking; is that really needed in downtown Toronto?  No one is challenging the engineers to innovate on structural design.
• To realize these long-term solutions there will need to be changes to legislation such as the Planning and Municipal Acts.   Procurement projects must start to include life cycle of earth materials.

Clearly the Commissioner’s ideas are not going to reduce the amount of fill tomorrow. Municipalities do need to be vigilant and deal with it.

1. Speakers throughout the day presented case studies of what is and is not working. Very specifically Township of Scugog presented the two cases they have lived/are living through of large fill operations.
2. We heard about a “Best Management Practices for  Soil Management in Ontario” being developed by the Minister of Environment; a draft is circulating now for feedback.  The
3. Strong new municipal bylaws were identified.

We also heard loud and clear that the old adage of “buyer beware” is very relevant.  Given cost of gasoline and cost of laboratory tests to validate its quality (i.e.  contamination specificity and levels) a truckload of fill for $100 is highly suspect.  Josh Garfinkel of Earthroots pointed out that contamination is not the only concern; there is also its degree of permeability.  If tons of very clay- like fill gets dumped on the Moraine, the ability of the rainwater to reach the aquifers is impeded.

Toronto Councillor Glenn de Baeremaeker reviewed how fill can be used such that the benefits outweigh the negatives.  Of all the examples he showed of restored green spaces the one that stood out for me was Toronto’s Leslie Street spit.  He acknowledged that the fill had not restored the area to the way it was 300 years ago but today it was significantly better than what it was 100 years ago.  And of course today it is an important site for numerous birds, some of which are facing extinction.

King’s resolution to Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities to modify the Aeronautics Act to reduce any ambiguity as to the necessity of respecting a municipality’s environmental and zoning bylaws when constructing/renovating an aerodrome was cited.   I initiated that resolution in a couple months ago; to date I am aware that several lower tier YR municipalities have endorsed it.

King is clearly “on guard” for this risk.  Several members of Staff attended

the symposium as did representatives from Concerned Citizens of King Township.  I have been advised that our current bylaw for managing fill is pretty good; I will be asking our Staff to review other ones cited at the Symposium.  And citizens are alert:  a few days after the symposium a citizen reported to Bylaw Officer that there was fill being dumped across from them;  investigation revealed no permit and the operation was halted.  (To clarify…it was not of a scale considered in the symposium; but, it was still illegal with its quality unknown.)

For more information on the symposium and particularly about the case studies presented, this newspaper article is worthwhile.