Stoney Creek's Taro dump took contaminated Kenilworth reservoir soil

The city sent nearly two-thirds of the contaminated soil removed during the Kenilworth Access reservoir's rehabilitation to GFL's Taro industrial dump in upper Stoney Creek - a fact omitted in a June media release celebrating completion of the work.

Taro manager Lorenzo Alfano revealed his dump took the bulk" of 13,270 cubic metres of the soil in response to concerns raised by a citizen member of the site's community liaison committee at its Sept. 12 quarterly meeting.

City council voted in November 2020 to have the soil removed after testing found it contained benzo(a)pyrene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon linked to cancer.

Contacted after the CLC meeting, the city confirmed that 8,566 cubic metres of the soil went to Taro, with the rest hauled to another GFL site in Toronto.

Alfano stressed that the soil, which included slag from the steel industry, met all Taro acceptance criteria for being classified as solid, non-hazardous waste before disposal there.

That material was all rigorously tested. There was a professional, third-party engineering consultant on site," Alfano told the online CLC meeting.

There's a level that makes it hazardous, and then below that level, the criteria allows it be non-hazardous," he said. We only take non-hazardous materials."

Citizen member Jeff Isowa had questioned Taro's receipt of the soil, citing Hamilton Spectator stories on council's decision to spend $3.3 million to remove it from the top of the reservoir, built in 1964, as part of a $6.8-million rehabilitation project.

While he wrongly suggested the stories called the soil hazardous" - they stated it was contaminated" - he said council's decision to have it removed from the reservoir site seemed to reflect concerns about potential impacts on people, plants and wildlife.

You're just moving the problem from one area to another. That's what it seemed like to me," Isowa said.

Michael Durst, district supervisor of the environment ministry's Hamilton district office, said he didn't have all the details on the soil removal, but the waste had to pass a leachate toxicity test to go to Taro.

Non-hazardous doesn't mean that all the wastes coming up (to Taro) don't have any contaminants in it," he said. They're just at a level not deemed to need to go to what would be considered a hazardous waste landfill."

Upper Stoney Creek Coun. Brad Clark said the city hired an independent firm to test the soil and was advised it would go to a non-hazardous dump.

There was a potential risk, although minimal, because the water reservoir is a sealed facility," he said of the decision to remove the soil. I'm not aware of any testing that indicated that it was hazardous or toxic material."

Isowa said the answers put some clarity" on how the soil wound up at Taro.

But still, as an outside community member, when you read stuff like that, things don't add up without that type of explanation," he said.

Earlier in the meeting, Alfano told the CLC that liner construction for the dump's expansion toward Green Mountain Road saw the site exceed one-hour provincial guidelines for fine dust particles on 33 occasions in June, July and August.

He said dry conditions and the construction's proximity to the site's lone dust monitor were contributing factors.

For a second meeting in a row, the CLC deferred consideration of a request that it organize an open house to address parent concerns about the dump's proximity to the new school being built at the corner of Green Mountain and First Road West.

Trustee Cam Galindo, who made the request in March, couldn't attend because of a school board meeting held at the same time, so the matter will now go to the CLC's next meeting on Dec. 12.

Galindo will no longer be trustee by then because he isn't seeking re-election this fall.

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: We attended the Sept. 12 CLC meeting to keep abreast of community concerns about the Taro dump.