Council here is continuing its work to fill in the blanks when it comes to controlling outside developers bringing fill to area farms.
Council directed staff on April 5 to consider Ed McKelvey’s suggestions about items to add to the town’s fill bylaw.
McKelvey is a farmer and one of several residents living along Trafalgar Road who are concerned about the dumping of fill in that area. He attended the council meeting as a delegation.
Developers from the GTA have been bringing fill to Erin and paying landowners to accept it. Some were allegedly not stripping topsoil on those lands, and after tons of earth are dumped, the land could become useless for farming. The town not only had little control over that practise – Credit Valley Conservation was issuing permits – but the town knew nothing about those approvals.
The CVC is now working with Erin, and there is a town move to have the Grand River Conservation Authority also keep the town informed and follow the town’s bylaw governing fill coming into the community.
Last month, the CVC board unanimously approved a new “large fill placement procedural guideline,” which defines a large fill project as anything over 500 cubic metres or 40 truckloads. The guideline states that obtaining a permit from the CVC will now require a plan of survey (including fill location, elevations, and quantity, as well as sediment and erosion control measures) and a soil report (stating the exact source of material and proof that it meets Ministry of the Environment guidelines).
More importantly, at least for those dealing with fill problems in Erin, the CVC will not issue any fill permits unless the owner or agent of the property involved has received written authorization from the municipality where the fill site is located.
McKelvey told council in a report April 5, “It is clear that the town has wide and far reaching powers to control fill placement under the Ontario Municipal Act.”
He checked bylaws in neighbouring Halton Hills and Caledon because those communities do not have the fill problems Erin faces.
Halton Hills passed its fill bylaw in December. That community can require:
– the person with the fill to enter into an agreement that may be registered on title to the site;
– no site alteration shall affect the quality or quantity of water on adjacent properties;
– no person shall carry out a site alteration on rural land in the town, but the owner can request a variance or exception through a formal application to the town’s site alteration committee of three town councillors. That committee has wide ranging authority to review the request, such as being able to determine if the fill will result in the soil fertility being maintained or improved. There are also restrictions in haulage routes and enforcement rules are strong.
Caledon requires:
– a public meeting for any fill placement over 1,000 loads and the director may ask for council approval or permit applications;
– fill standards are very clear and no fill can be placed that contains rubbish, plastic, metals etc.;
– inspection is rigid and the town has inspectors that track fill trucks to ensure that fill is coming from the approved location, with a log of each truck, including the licence number coming to the site, must be recorded; and
– penalties are strong, with the town having done remedial work at sites and charging the costs back to the property owner’s tax bill.
That can ensure property owners do not accept anything but clean fill.
McKelvey added, “Many of us who are involved in the fill problem agree that old gravel pits, quarries, etc., would be ideal locations for much of this fill.
“These properties are controlled by the Ministry of Natural Resources and for this ministry to make changes would likely require many, many years. We cannot wait for this to happen.”
He asked the town to create a new site alteration bylaw or possibly amend the current bylaw to incorporate provisions that are used by Caledon and Halton.
Mayor Lou Maieron said in an interview the town will certainly consider McKelvey’s suggestions and has directed its planning staff consider them and do a report.
Maieron said the town knew nothing about fill coming in because the conservation authorities were the approval agents, but that has changed with CVC, and is likely to change at the GRCA, too.
He said that is important because Brampton is currently underway with another 6,000 acres of housing development. He said the amount of fill coming from there would be enormous, and if Erin controls what comes in, places such as Guelph-Eramosa and Centre Wellington Township are two of the next logical places for the developers to try to dump fill.
Maieron added McKelvey’s suggestion to use that fill to fill in old gravel pits makes sense, but he will not hold his breath waiting for the Ministry of Natural Resources to act on that suggestion.
