Storing biosolids in manure pits tanked - for now
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
by BETTER FARMING STAFF
The idea of using former manure tanks in Middlesex Centre as a storage hub for municipal biosolids is a bust – for now.
On Wednesday, Ontario Municipal Board member Steven Stefanko adjourned a hearing into whether the municipality should have allowed zoning for the project.
That’s good news for concerned residents, says Linda Peters, a member of NUBS.org Environmental Protection Committee, a local group that has raised $30,000 to date to fight the issue.
Bartels Environmental wanted to store biosolids from Elora in a former manure pit on the property of Nick and Colleen Wiendels. (Better Farming, March, 2008) The province requires rezoning before considering environmental approval. Responding to vehement community protest, the municipality, located near London, rejected the Wiendels’ application.
Extended storage of biosolids – sewage and other municipal waste - in on-farm lagoons or tanks is not new. Until recently, provincial environmental laws prohibited storing the material on one farm and spreading it on others. Now, with environmental approval, Bartels can spread the material elsewhere. For this reason those supporting or protesting the proposal regard its outcome as precedent setting.
The Wiendels and Bartels appealed Middlesex Centre’s decision to the Board, an independent tribunal that hears appeals under the provincial Planning Act.
At a pre-hearing in May, the Board rejected a request from the municipality and NUBS.org to establish a joint hearing involving the OMB and the Environmental Review Tribunal.
Stefanko adjourned the Middlesex Centre hearing after learning a court is deciding if joint hearings are appropriate in another case. A divisional court panel is determining if an appeal about a golf course proposal in Aurora should go to a joint board. No date has yet been set for delivering a decision.
“It could go on for months or even years,” says Peters.
In the meantime, Bartels and the Wiendels can request a joint hearing, says Cathy Saunders, Middlesex Centre’s chief administrative officer.
Saunders says the municipality supported adjournment. “We have always indicated that the environmental issues are linked to the land use issue and both needed to be considered concurrently.”
A joint hearing “would give us more reasons (to explain) why we don’t want that here,” says Peters. If the rezoning application ends up being approved, it could set the precedent for other farmers with unused storage facilities, she adds. “It’s like saying ‘we’re open for business (in Middlesex),’” she says.
John Doherty, Waterloo, the lawyer representing Bartels and the Wiendels, could not be reached for comment.
In March, company owner Ben Bartels said the arrangement would offer the convenience of its own storage facility close to the farms where the sewage would eventually be spread. Middlesex Centre is roughly 70 kilometres from Elora. He affirmed that if the company is successful in obtaining the provincial approvals, he’d consider exploring the arrangement elsewhere. BF