“We are not against industry. We are not against economic development. We are not xenophobic.”
Those comments were made at a May 9 public meeting by Susan McSherry, a member of GETconcerned, a citizen’s group opposing a glass plant in Guelph-Eramosa Township.
She continued, “What we are interested in is seeing our township represent us, speak up for us and have a well-planned, fully organized, fully developed, fully executable plan in a location that is suitable for a plant like this.”
The Xinyi Canada Glass Limited float glass plant, proposed for 5081 Wellington Road 32, north of Wellington Road 124, was first brought to Guelph-Eramosa council on April 9.
At last week’s public meeting at the Marden Community Centre, township planning consultant Dan Currie explained the land is designated rural employment area under the Wellington County Official Plan and zoned rural industrial (M1) under the township zoning bylaw.
While the official plan permits small scale temporary accommodation, the zoning bylaw does not.
As a result of zoning bylaw limitations, the Chinese company has asked for a number of bylaw amendments, including:
– allowing accessory dwelling units on the site:
– permitting a parking rate of one space per 900 square metres of manufacturing warehouse and 0.5 spaces per dwelling unit, rather than one space per 90 square metres for industrial use and one space per 200 square metres for warehouse use;
– not requiring loading spaces;
– increasing the main building height from 15m (about four storeys) to 22.5m (about seven storeys); and
– increasing the maximum lot coverage from 40 per cent to 50%.
Xinyi planning consultant Eric Saulesleja explained the two-million-square-foot plant will include two advanced float glass lines. It will be set back from Wellington Road 32 by over 130m and from the northern property line by 160m.
The plant will run continuously – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year – for 12 to 15 years until it is closed for maintenance.
Saulesleja said the glass products would support the market in Canada and the U.S. and the plant would employ 400 full-time workers. He added the facility qualifies as dry industrial.
“These areas … aren’t served by municipal sanitary sewers, or municipal water systems,” he said.
“So one of the key elements is to identify that there (are) sufficient site conditions that can allow for private water and private sanitary services and some preliminary work that’s been done on the hydrogeology indicates that there is sufficient water supply on the site.”
He added, “Post-manufacturing use is a permitted use.”
Shelly Farwell, a civil engineer on the project, explained the proposed plant would need 1.6 million liters of water per day or about nine litres per minute, per acre, which meets the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change’s definition of dry industrial use (less than 9.84 litres of water per minute, per acre).
More than 100 people came to the public meeting and many voiced concerns about the proposed bylaw amendments and the plant itself.
Bylaw amendments
Suzie Diamond was concerned about temporary dwellings proposed for the northwest portion of the property.
“I am boggled that we are considering adding dormitories to an industrial site,” Diamond said. “How is this even happening?”
Diamond compared the temporary dwellings at Xinyi with the living quarters of temporary migrant workers on farms, who she alleges are “not properly protected under our worker legislation.”
She pointed out that there are hotels and other accommodations in the area that could house employees.
“We’re talking about the supposed benefits that the community’s going to see from having people here,” Diamond said.
“Well, if folks are staying on site, living on site with recreational facilities on site, with cafeteria on site, when the heck are we going to see these benefits?”
Project manager Ajax Tung said the company was not going to prevent employees from leaving the plant.
Resident Ed Kennedy said he is concerned other industrial businesses may follow suit.
“I know people in the area with industrial buildings who would love to have a temporary residence on their site as well, so they can put (up) their students that work at their industries … this is just a joke,” he said.
Another concern with the bylaw amendment was the number of rail cars coming into the facility and the possibility they could block local laneways.
One of the reasons the company is requesting no external loading space requirement is because a portion of the supplies will be brought to the plant by rail.
Xinyi Canada president Tommy Wong confirmed about 40 rail cars would bring supplies to the plant three times a week.
Township resident Linda Hoffman said her parents live on the north side of the railway tracks and she is concerned emergency vehicles “won’t be able to get to them.”
Saulesleja said part of the site plan is creating a number of parallel rail lines on the property to bring train cars onto the site for storage.
“So there will be a guarantee that there will not be a time when the laneway is blocked, should there be a fire or medical emergency?” Hoffman said.
Saulesleja said the train would have to go back and forth along the rail line and at times the laneway could blocked.
“So plan a heart attack outside of those hours?” Hoffman said.
Wong confirmed the train would temporarily stop on the track and bring half the cars into the plant, then bring in the other half.
“That is a concern,” Hoffman said.
Some residents were also concerned about the height of the building.
“At seven storeys this factory is going to loom over us and become the single largest fact of our existence,” said Detlef Burghardt, whose house is about 80m from the proposed site.
“Anticipating conventional size industry that tops out at 15 metres, I’ve been planting trees for the last five years to create a buffer zone, but there will be no buffer against this,” he said.
“A factory this large and this prominent will affect us all.”
Plant concerns
A main focus of many speakers was concern over the company’s proposed water taking.
Xinyi hydrogeologist Bill Morrison said the water will be used “to cool this molten sand that was turned into glass.”
He added, “A fair amount of that water evaporates into the atmosphere. That concentrates in the water that’s left and the extra water that they pump every day is to top up that water so we continuously have cooling water to cool the glass at a steady rate.”
Engineer consultant Garth Cressman said about two thirds of the 1.6 million litres will be evaporated and another third will be reintroduced back into the ground water system.
Royal City Nursery owner Tanya Olsen said she was concerned Xinyi’s water taking would impact her business.
“My garden centre depends on water,” she said. “My livelihood depends on water. My life depends on water; not just the water I drink, but the water I put into my plants, the water I filter out and the water I put back into the ground water table.”
She asked the township to find a way for the plant to fit within the municipality.
Peter Stulp asked for a guarantee that there would be funds available if a resident’s well dries up or needs to be drilled deeper to reach the water.
Morrison said, “To pump 242 gallons a minute, continuously, the wells will come to equilibrium … and the interference that will occur in wells that are close will be in the order of three metres and the interference in wells that are farther away will be less than one metre,” Morrison said.
He said Xinyi now has the hydraulic characteristics of the aquifer so they better understand it.
“The next step is to get a permit for the facility itself and when you get the permit for the facility itself we plan to run a seven-day test,” Morrison said.
“We plan to … knock on people’s doors to find out about their wells and … monitor wells when we run the test.”
Morrison explained when a permit to take water is issued, the government insists any negative impacts that can’t be remediated by changing the pump or modifying the current well, will result in a new well.
“All of that is at the cost of Xinyi and it’s guaranteed by the Ontario government through the permit to take water,” he said.
Another major concern was fire prevention.
Diane Kennedy said there would be an enormous furnace needed for the plant and the property abuts two propane storage facilities and a chemical company.
“Even to the untrained eye this is a recipe for disaster,” Kennedy said.
She asked who is going to respond to a potential explosion, how people are going to escape and whether an emergency evacuation plan has been developed.
Guelph Fire Services fire prevention officer Tony Sabatini replied, “When a building is built in accordance to the Ontario Building Code it meets all of the minimum life and fire safety standards of the building, or else it can’t be occupied.
“The chief building official for the township has also made other suggestions above and beyond those minimum requirements, to which I understand, at least at this point, the people at Xinyi are going to abide by.”
The fire code also has minimum maintenance requirements and emergency response plans, which would be approved by the chief fire official.
“We’re there for you, we’re also there for them. We’re here for the public good for fire safety and we do have a plan in place to make sure that these are done,” Sabatini said.
Tung was confused by the comments.
“You are all in Canada,” he said. “This is not a third world country in Africa.
“You have a very healthy system, you have laws to protect your well-being … We have to comply with all of them to get a chance to operate here.”
However, by the end of the meeting many in attendance were still opposed to the plant.
“There has not been one single vote in favour of this project,” said resident Roy Paul. “So that tells me if we were to take it to a vote of everyone tonight, it would be overwhelmingly defeated.
“Council, mayor: you are our elected officials. So do what’s right and listen to the voice of the people.”
Council will not decide on the zoning bylaw amendment until after a second public meeting at a future date.
For more information visit http://get.on.ca/www.get.on.ca.xinyi.
