Mob-linked mountain of dirt in Flamborough spurs another lawsuit, this time for $130 million

Lawsuits over the infamous Waterdown Garden Supplies property are piling up alongside the mountains of polluted soil - with the latest a legal claim for $130 million.

Neighbours fear the legal quagmire at the rural Hwy. 5 property will delay a needed cleanup of the estimated 24,000 truckloads of dirt dumped in 10-metre-high piles between 2018 and 2019.

Everyone is looking for someone else to dump responsibility on," said Jim Whelan, who lives across the road from the dirt mountains. But you can't just let it sit there forever ... At some point, there has to be action."

Three provincial cleanup orders were outstanding on the rural property east of Troy when The Spectator reported on an explosive $75-million lawsuit in January that alleged involvement of two city staffers and a slain mobster in a soil-dumping scheme.

A third-party probe of the allegations for the city is very near its conclusion" and a report to council is pending, said spokesperson Matthew Grant. In the past, the city has stressed it had no evidence" to support the allegations.

Plaintiffs in that contentious lawsuit, Waterdown Garden Supplies Ltd. and president Gary McHale, also filed a $15-million claim against the principals of alleged soil dumper Havana Group Supplies, a construction firm headed by convicted fraudster Steve Sardinha that counted reputed Mob boss Pat Musitano as a silent partner.

Now, McHale has filed a $130-million lawsuit alleging negligence, fraud or liability for fraud against a mortgage holder on the Flamborough property, as well as a soil-testing engineering firm and a past lawyer for Havana Group Supplies.

McHale, who faces a provincial order to clean up the land, said he filed the additional claims because he believes other parties are liable for the soil-dumping and we have to make sure we're covered, because it is an expensive cleanup."

Both the ownership of the property and responsibility for the dumping remain a tangled legal mess.

The province ordered McHale, Waterdown Garden Supplies and the principals of Havana to clean up polluted soil at the site and test the groundwater for contamination in 2019.

But McHale says a mortgage holder on the land got a court order to evict his company in late 2018, leaving him unable to clean up or even access the site. He suggested it could cost $2,000 per truckload to properly dispose of badly contaminated soil - potentially tens of millions of dollars in total.

The province has identified Sukhinder Sandhu as a mortgage holder and most recent controller" of the Waterdown Garden property, but the Brampton resident does not face any cleanup orders.

Sandhu is among the directors of 1350057 Ontario Limited named in the most recent lawsuit.

In a brief telephone interview, Sandhu dismissed the latest lawsuit as playing games" and argued The Spectator should not be asking him questions about the Waterdown Garden property. I am only the second mortgage (holder)," he said, before referring further questions to his lawyer.

A lawyer for Havana did not respond to a Spectator request for an interview Friday.

In 2019, Sandhu told The Spectator he was only holding the property because of a default court judgment and that he had locked the gates to prevent any other trucks from gaining access. If it's contaminated, it's not my fault," he said at the time. I'm not going to spend millions of dollars there. I was only the mortgagee."

Whelan said Friday there has been no cleanup of soil at the site despite the 2019 director's order issued by the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks. The city did do testing for residents in the area this year, however, that showed contaminants had not spread to neighbouring drinking water wells.

Whelan argued the city and province should remediate the land if the soil dumpers or landowners will not.

Whelan said he still does not understand why neither level of government stepped in earlier to stop soil dumping at the Highway 5 property given there was a 2015 court injunction against such activity. They both bear some responsibility ... (because) they let it happen," he said.

The ministry started investigating noncompliance" with the 2019 cleanup order last year. A spokesperson was unable to say Friday whether that investigation continues.

Principals with Waterdown Garden Supplies Ltd. also face charges related to separate 2018 orders to clean up asphalt shingles and other waste at the site. No trial date has been set.

Matthew Van Dongen is a Hamilton-based reporter covering transportation for The Spectator. Reach him via email: mvandongen@thespec.com