Keele Valley landfill
[2] It was located at the intersection of Keele Street and McNaughton Road in Maple, a community in the northeastern part of the City of Vaughan in Ontario.
In 1985, the initial portion of a landfill gas collection system was installed to reduce emissions and associated odours emanating into the nearby community.
[4] In 2002, the site was identified by the Government of Ontario as an Area of High Aquifer Vulnerability, which would prohibit waste disposal and organic soil conditioning facilities being built or operating there per the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan.
[8] When it opened, the Keele Valley Landfill was within an almost entirely rural setting, but the rapid growth of Maple in the 1990s surrounded the site with residential developments.
[15] It compares the Keele Valley peak annual average data to the Ontario provincial standards for municipal solid waste (MSW) and Drinking Water Objectives (DWO).
[2] Circling the site is a 10,000 linear metre dual header piping system which is used for the transmission of gas from the wells and trenches to the flaring station.
The city of Toronto receives approximately $1 million in royalty payments annually for recovering the landfill gases which are used at the power plant.
[30] By the following week, Superior-Crawford had filed a legal suit contesting the choices of the IWA report for future landfill sites to host the region's garbage,[34] favouring expansion of Keele Valley.
[34] Although expansion of the Keele Valley landfill was not originally a viable option, the legal actions by Superior-Crawford "could very easily change the context", according to Walter Pitman of the IWA.
[38] Local residents strongly disliked the dump due to the odours and constant truck traffic it generated, and were opposed to its expansion.
Primary objections to the expansion were the existence of new houses built less than one kilometre from the site, the construction of St. Joan of Arc Catholic High School at the nearby intersection of McNaughton Road and Saint Joan of Arc Avenue, and the planned development of a residential community for 30,000 people in adjacent parts of Richmond Hill.
[42] In 1993, Mario Ferri had noted that the landfill sits upon the Oak Ridges Moraine, which would, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources, preclude the site's further expansion.
[45] The city of Toronto and a Zoning Board of Appeal (ZBA) "to permit the continued accessory waste management uses in the Primary Buffer Area at the [376 ha] Keele Valley Landfill Site and yard waste composting at the [66 ha] Avondale Clay Extraction site".
[48] Multiple lawsuits were filed against the city: from 1,500 residents of Maple; from the town of Vaughan; and from Liford Holdings Ltd., owners of the property.
The suit also requested that the court rescind York Region's permission to the city of Toronto to operate the Keele Valley Landfill.
The leachate "made the mounds collapse periodically, causing exhalations of methane, giving off its pungent rotten-egg, hydrogen sulfate stench.
[51] On 1 March 2001, Gord Miller, the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, was granted intervenor status to the litigation, which would be presented to the Supreme Court on 18 June 2001.
The commissioner's intervenor status in the case was to support the litigant's claim of the landfill being a public nuisance, per provisions in the Environmental Bill of Rights of Ontario.
We also want to make sure the interpretation of this legislation is consistent with the province's broader strategy of protecting, conserving and restoring the natural environment.
[51] The Ontario Court of Appeal had stated that a class action lawsuit could not proceed because "the residents' complaints were not similar enough and were spread over too many years to constitute a common cause"[52] The Supreme Court date was moved to 13 June 2001, before which Miller stated "The framers of the Environmental Bill of Rights believed strongly in the public's right to sue for damages because of a public nuisance causing environmental harm.
[57] The resident class-action lawsuit eventually prompted Vaughan City Council to favour closing the site, and shipping York Region's and Toronto's garbage elsewhere.
[58] Thousands of residents[59] and Vaughan councillor Mario Ferri[60] gathered at the base of the heap of garbage[61] that day to celebrate the landfill's closing with champagne, cake,[60] and fireworks.
[59] Toronto had no immediate replacement facility, as the proposed Adams Mine project in Kirkland Lake met strong local and environmental opposition.
