Community News

RESIDENTS WORRY THAT 'DECAYING TOXIC WASTE' IS IN PAVING

DURHAM REGION PAUSES INNOVATIVE PAVING PROJECT WHILE THE MATERIALS USED ARE INVESTIGATED

JENNIFER O'MEARA jomeara@ durhamregion.com

Clarington residents have raised the alarm about the waste being used to reconstruct Newtonville Road, and the Region of Durham has paused the pilot project.

"Durham Region has recklessly dumped garbage, batteries, all kinds of decaying toxic waste — unfortunately that's going to leach into our ground if we don't get it removed immediately," said resident Andrew Mcvey. "When I saw this, I was absolutely disheartened and disgusted by what was going on there."

In February, the Region of Durham announced a new pilot project to use recycled materials to reconstruct part of Newtonville Road. The hope was that using recycled materials in road repairs could reduce the amount of waste stored in regional waste facilities, decrease the amount of aggregate material mined and trucked in for road

construction and possibly significantly increase the strength, durability and overall pavement life cycle with plastics in the road network.

The region explained that the reconstruction would reuse approximately 400 tonnes of recycled glass in the granular base, and an estimated six tonnes and 4.5 tonnes of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibres made from recycled plastic in the asphalt.

When the road work began this month, residents were concerned to see waste materials other than recycled plastics and glass. They say they found "leaky batteries and metal objects such as antennas from cellular phones and crushed

metals, metal hooks, broken razor blades, dental tools, metal pens full of ink, small circuit boards, metal keys, to name just a few."

Warning: Video contains profanity

Residents are worried about the environmental impact of rain water washing through the waste and impacting the ground water. Their nearby homes are on well water, and the land is part of the Oak Ridges Moraine watershed.

"My kids drink this water, I'm a thousand yards from this picture," said Mcvey. "I own a small farm out there ... A lot of the farms in the area grow food for human consumption."

The waste has been covered with crushed lime

stone and aggregate. The next step, paving the road, has been halted. On Monday, Sept. 19, Clarington council supported the residents' concerns.

"I don't know what it's going to take for the region to get the message that we don't want their garbage here anymore. I'm appalled this could happen," said Councillor Margaret Zwart.

After a complaint was made to the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, the region paused work on the project. The paving work won't continue until the Ministry of the Environment and Durham Regional staff can investigate the composition of the recycled material being used on the pilot project.

"The sorting process used for some of the material incorporated into this section of road is being reviewed in co-operation with the MECP. The Region has instructed the contractor to defer paving this project until further investigation," Ramesh Jagannathan, Durham's director of transportation and field services, explained via email.

Although Phase 2 was quickly put on hold until after the verification process, residents should be aware the contractor will still remain on-site to complete other aspects of the reconstruction project, such as grading.

If dangerous waste materials are found to be part of the road, Clarington wants the road construction section and materials to be removed immediately.

"We have right now, right this minute, to do something about this because my friends and family are drinking this water ... I'm drinking this water, you're drinking this water. This is our home," said Karrie Lynn Dymond, a local environmental advocate whose son was made very ill from contaminated water in Walkerton and later died. "I don't want somebody else to die like my son."

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2022-09-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-09-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://communitynews.pressreader.com/article/281547999769612

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