"The Province wants input on how to save taxpayer dollars and make life easier for you".

"Tell them to stop considering the Beachville dump application now!"

• Opening the Help Government Work Better web page.

• Choose Environment & Parks from the list.

• Copy and paste the prepared texts below into the two matching boxes on the province's web page. If you wish to add your own comments please be respectful and objective.

• Clicking the “Submit” button on the next page once your done.

 Taking less than 5 minutes to do this will amplify our opposition to the Beachville dump and tell the Province how it can save money and make life easier for people in Oxford County and beyond.

Thanks,

Oxford People Against the Landfill

What problem are you facing? How does it affect you?

We are frustrated by how the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Parks and Conservation is considering Walker Environmental Group’s (WEG) application for a new 17.5 million tonne dump at the Carmeuse Quarry in Beachville, near Ingersoll. Although Walker have adhered to the ministry prescribed application process we remain concerned that final approval could be driven by expediency for Toronto and Walker’s financial interests, without due regard to the catastrophic social and environmental consequences for an entire watershed.

The people of Oxford County, including municipal governments, have been unequivocal on the immorality and extreme risks posed by this unwanted, unneeded and unwarranted potential project. They have been joined by over 130 other municipalities who have campaigned to “Demand the Right” to refuse (or accept, in some cases) landfills or other projects they consider detrimental and risk-prone to their communities.

The people of Oxford County have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless hours of their personal time in explaining objectively to successive Ministers of the Environment, Parks and Conservation why this dump poses extreme risk to their health and property values and has unquantifiable and potentially irreparable longer-term consequences. Being dismissive of long-term hazards can have a profoundly damaging effect on society.

Walker’s Beachville dump would be built above fractured limestone, the same as the Richmond dump near Napanee that has leaked leachate, rendered well water toxic, destroyed wetland areas and depreciated the value of adjacent homes. The Adams Mine dump site in northern Ontario was rejected for this same reason – its impact on water, and through it on families and their investments in their homes.

And yet the MECP continues to expend taxpayer funds in considering the WEG application to develop a high-risk dump near Beachville. It is causing stress in many communities surrounding the project and negatively affecting property values. They do not understand why the obvious negative health and environmental effects of this dump have not already resulted in outright rejection by the Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks.

How can we fix it? How might this save time or reduce costs?

The circumstances of the WEG Beachville project would suggest that necessary Financial Assurance (FA) to handle any level of cleanup, should the liner fail, would be very significant. Current provincial FA requirements are wholly inadequate for this high-risk project. To fully indemnify the people of Oxford County and the Thames River watershed a third-party insurance bond of not less than $500 million retained for not less than 100 years would be mandatory for full remediation and compensation of injured parties. It would be unconscionable to have taxpayers bear this risk, irrespective of its immediacy.

The Minister must immediately review the potential human and environmental catastrophe posed by a dump on fractured limestone bedrock in Beachville adjacent the Thames River. Based on this understanding the Minister should reject the project, close the project file and agree to the municipal zoning restrictions already in place for this site. Such action would immediately reduce the provincial cost burden and release administrative resources for more productive and beneficial work for Ontario taxpayers.

Premier Doug Ford previously stated that Ontario municipalities should not be forced to host dumps against the will of local people and could show good faith and provincial financial stewardship by terminating the proposed Beachville dump project immediately.