The decision by the County's committee that dealt with garbage to recommend to the entire County Council that they should not pursue their plans to build a gasification facility on the site of the county owned dump is disappointing to say the least. I am extremely disillusioned with the Chair of the committee, Shelburne Mayor Ed Crewson given the fact that he has been the main proponent for exploring thermal technologies for solid waste disposal. He had even convinced his own town council to commit $50 thousand of his constituents' taxes for the study of a pilot project in order to keep the process moving forward.

The politicians of Dufferin's lower-tier municipalities have decided not to relinquish their control over their solid waste to the County. Eventhough their predecessors on County Council had devised a county-wide waste management master plan and purchased a 200 acre site for a landfill.

The four municipalities that are fortune enough to be in possession of an operating landfill wish to continue to use the technology from the time of the Pharaohs. They would prefer to bury their trash in a landfill that would allow toxins to leach into the ground, into the water table and the release of methane gas. Methane is a known gas that contributes to global warming. The four remaining municipalities which comprises the bulk of Dufferin's population must depend on other jurisdictions being willing to accept their solid waste.

Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan State signed a measure last year to ban foreign trash, but the state needed congressional authority to enforce it. With the endorsement of the U.S. Federal Government they were prepared to stop all imports of Canadian trash within 90 days of that law being passed. The bill passed in the House but it was defeated in a Republican controlled Senate.

On April 24, 2007 the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would empower states to limit how much municipal solid waste they take from a foreign country. The bill will now go to the U.S. Senate. This year both the House of Representatives and the Senate are controlled by the Democrats who are more sympathetic to the plight of individual states that want to curb the importation of Canadian trash.

The MacViro Consultants group may have not been able to satisfy all of the committee's concerns but in my opinion this is too important of an issue to let it sit on the back burner for any length of time because the clock is ticking. According to the Ministry of the Environment the best that a composting program can hope to achieve is a 38 percent diversion rate of waste that was destined for a landfill. Recycling and hazardous waste programs still leave considerable amounts of solid waste that needs to be addressed. But when will they?

L. Rankin Orangeville