Clark now fighting for bigger Taro dump
Proposal backtracks on a Newalta commitment that the landfill wouldn’t be expanded
After years of fighting the Taro dump, Brad Clark will help the upper Stoney Creek site’s new owner try to pile more waste there — enough to require a full-blown environmental assessment.
Clark, who was the area’s councillor before his 2014 unsuccessful mayoral run, says he’s been hired as a consultant by Terrapure Environmental to assist its bid to dump waste where previous owner Newalta Corp. promised to put clean fill.
Newalta made the commitment three years ago when it got approval to raise the industrial dump’s height by nearly a third in return for eliminating a 15-hectare disposal area by Green Mountain Road.
At the time, Clark denounced the change, warning neighbours would be staring at “a mountain of crap.”
Last week, he said he will help Terrapure, which bought the dump in February of last year, find the best way to reinstate the former 57-hectare footprint but keep the higher 18.5-metre elevation — raised by 4.5 metres in 2013.
Clark said his new role brings him “full circle” from when he led Stoney Creek Residents Against Pollution, which unsuccessfully fought the dump, approved by the Mike Harris government in 1996 without public hearings.
“I think I have an awful lot to offer to ensure that this facility reconfiguration that is proposed is environmentally sound, viable and minimizes the impact to the residents,” he said.
“I can either do that on the outside or do that on the inside as a consultant who can raise the concerns in an appropriate manner,” he added.
Terrapure communications director Greg Jones, who served in the same role for Newalta, said his new employer is still determining how much waste will be added to the site under the new plan and hopes to do so in time for the open house.
The proposal backtracks on a commitment he made on behalf of Newalta when he told a July 2013 meeting: “We have no plans to expand the capacity of the site, full stop,” in response to skepticism about the company’s long-term intentions.
Jones said last week the new proposal reflects the poor market for clean fill and will close the dump “a minimum” of two to three years sooner than the 16 to 22 years it will take if forced to adhere to the 2013 plan.
“For us to bring in fill, it’s going to take a long, long time,” he said. “The market for fill right now is pretty much non-existent for a company like us because there’s so much of it going to so many places.”
Doug Conley, who succeeded Clark as the area’s councillor, said he’s waiting to see more details on the proposal and how the public responds.
He said much has changed since the dump opened in December 1996 — when original owner Philip Services Corp. told the public it would operate for 20 years.
The site became notorious in 1998 for exploiting a loophole to accept hazardous U.S. cyanide sludge — one the Harris cabinet closed the following year.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be controversial,” Conley said. “There will be some twitching and pushing and shoving and all that kind of stuff, I think, but I think it will be passed by the government eventually. I can’t see them not doing it. Let’s see what kind of compensations we can get or whatever.”
NDP MPP Paul Miller, who fought the dump as a Stoney Creek councillor, said he’s not surprised by Terrapure’s plan but called Clark’s role “amazing.”
“I don’t want to use the word hypocritical,” he said. “Who better to get on side than your biggest opponent?”