Landfill traffic compensation weighed
The Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority voted Tuesday to form a committee to explore whether Puce Road residents should receive compensation for enduring truck traffic hauling dirt from the Windsor-Essex Parkway project.
“I feel we owe them a look at this compensation question,” said Lakeshore Mayor Tom Bain, who put forth the motion. “I’ve been out and seen what they are going through. We owe it to them to address this issue.”
LaSalle Mayor Ken Antaya voted to create the committee but emphasized that it didn’t mean residents were going to get compensation.
Eli Maodus, general manager of the waste authority, rejected the creation of the fund in a report to board members. He said the dirt hauling is part of a construction project and public entities don’t compensate residents for the annoyance of construction.
Resident Gary Peck said he knew compensation would be a struggle.
“I’m hopeful, optimistic,” he said.
Resident Richard Garrick said residents made progress Tuesday, albeit “baby steps.”
“I think any forward movement is a bonus,” he said. His lifestyle is still inconvenienced. He said fresh air and the birds disappeared when the dump trucks arrived in the spring. He can’t sit on his deck anymore because of the noise, dust and diesel fumes.
“We’ve lost everything we moved out here for,” he said.
In the first phase of hauling about 1,500 trucks a day take dirt from the parkway project in Windsor to the closed Maidstone landfill on County Road 25, also known as Puce Road, in Lakeshore. Since the hauling started in May, residents have complained of speeding, dust, fumes and noise. The county responded by lowering the speed limit from Highway 401 to the landfill entrance. Amico, the contractor digging the parkway, clamped down on drivers excessively blaring horns and the waste authority said it would move the entrance to the landfill farther north.
Maodus said he expects to hear by mid-November whether the waste authority gets its permit from the province to begin Phase 2 in January when trucks are expected to begin delivering one million cubic metres of dirt over 18 months. Trucks will run from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. That’s an additional 17 hours a week of deliveries from what is hauled now. Maodus said trucks won’t be travelling after it gets dark because the landfill doesn’t have lights.
In a presentation to the authority members Tuesday, several residents outlined how a compensation fund was formed when the Maidstone landfill was in operation in the 1990s. The province mandated the creation of a $25,000 fund that would compensate residents for diminished quality of life.
“We are only asking for fairness,” resident Andrea Rivest said. “The precedent has been set.”