Law Times

LAW TIMES / JUNE 30 - JULY 7, 2008 PAGE 15 many municipalities, the con- cept of energy from waste is cur- rently a hot topic for many cities and lawyers alike. Jennifer Agnolin, an associ- ate with Willms & Shier Envi- ronmental Lawyers LLP, says the issues of energy from waste and landfill are the two big ones at the moment for lawyers dealing with municipal waste. Energy from waste in particular, she says, "has become a hot topic in the last few years as more and more municipalities are dealing with closing landfills and lack of new landfill space, they're looking for alternative technologies for dealing with municipal waste." The old debate is coming back involving the health and safety issues of incineration as well as the argument that it will decrease emphasis on waste di- version, says Agnolin. On the regulatory landscape, within Ontario, just over a year ago the approval process for energy from waste technologies was made a little easier, she says. The regulation un- der the Environmental Assessment Act, called the Waste Management Projects Regulation, streamlines the environmental assessment process, which previously took years. "What we have now is a streamlined process that they es- timate will take an average of 18 months," she says. "Before that regulation came into place . . . the municipalities were starting to look at EFW, energy from waste technologies, and with that new regulation there's certainly a renewed inter- est in it," she says. Ottawa, for example, has been running an energy from waste pi- lot project using new technology since last year, through a partner- ship between the city and Plasco Energy Group, and the city is now recommending that a full- scale plant be developed. "Municipalities across Canada I think have been watching Ottawa and the pilot project there with interest to see how that's worked out," says Agnolin. Whether they will follow suit is hard to say, she says, and depends on the municipality itself, as for smaller municipalities, for exam- ple, the costs associated with EFW might be difficult. Harry Dahme, a senior partner in the environmental law group at Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP, who has been involved in waste management issues since 1984, says that energy from waste was identified as an alternative in the 1980s, which led to the last such facility built in Canada, the Algon- quin Power facility in Brampton, which is now almost 19 years old. "Issues were raised at that time, all of the issues that in fact you hear today in opposition to energy waste were raised at the hearing that took place in respect of that application," he says. "We had all of the issues con- cerning the negative impact of energy from waste on recycling, that you're taking away from recycling. We heard all of the is- www.canadalawbook.ca CA026 www.lawtimesnews.com LT0530 Energy from waste a hot topic for many cities W BY HELEN BURNETT Law Times hile using landfills for waste disposal re- mains an option for sues concerning health impact due to any variety of concerns, primar- ily air emissions," he says. All of the old issues that were raised 20 and 30 years ago are still out there, he says, but "without acknowledging that in fact all the evidence establishes that in fact it's safe, and that it doesn't create these kinds of adverse impacts," he says. In today's context, says Dahme, some municipalities looking at waste management needs are con- sidering this option, and evalua- tions are being conducted in Hal- ton and York/Durham. However, he says, landfill still remains the preferred alternative, adding that "there has not been a new landfill in Ontario, approved, since the Halton landfill" in 1992. The City of Toronto took over as owner of the Green Lane landfill, southwest of London, Ont., last year, planning to begin fully using the site in 2011, when its contract to ship garbage to Michigan ends. While there have been landfill expansions, Dahme notes that they are providing replacement capacity. "The fact is that all of the capacity is rapidly being ex- hausted and that we're going to see a real shortage in landfill ca- pacity in Ontario fairly shortly and that's, I think, the real prob- lem," he says. "That's one of the reasons that EFW is on the table, is because of the tremendous re- duction in capacity required as a result of EFW." While there are any number of options available, Dahme notes, "Ultimately, landfill is still going to be a required component of the overall waste management strat- egy and we don't have any new landfills in Ontario." He adds that the issue is which municipality will commit itself to looking for a landfill in the face of public opposition with no guarantee of success. Lawyers are seeing fewer land- fill issues, as this is something mu- nicipalities don't want to confront, says Dahme. "I think the fact that Dufferin County has just issued an RFP for a smaller EFW I think is an indicator that there's a genuine willingness to look at options and its probably driven by need — they Agnolin, who is also the vice chair- woman of the Toronto residual waste working group, says that five per cent of the city's garbage is going to the Green Lane land- fill; however, it is under contrac- tual obligation to keep sending garbage to Michigan until 2010. "Of course the main thing in the City of Toronto is the rollout of their new garbage . . . collection system, garbage bins and recycling bins, and that this new program is to promote and increase diversion within the city," she adds. The city has a target of 70 per cent diversion of residential mu- nicipal waste from landfill by 2010, says Agnolin, and is currently some- where in the 40 per cent mark. The mandate of her working don't have landfills so they need to address this and they need to ad- dress it quickly," he says. For municipalities, if recycling is not the 100 per cent solution, then they have to consider "which of these two alternatives is less likely to cre- ate public outrage and is more like- ly to be acceptable," adds Dahme. group is to still look at alterna- tive technologies for dealing with residential municipal waste, and she notes that the City of Toronto is still looking at energy from waste as one possible tech- nology as well as others, and are still considering whether there is a technology out there that is suitable for them. LT caseAlert Municipal and Planning Law An easy-to-use electronic service that keeps you up to date with the latest decisions in municipal and planning law. 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