HOWEVER REFRESHING IT MAY BE that municipalities owning old-style dumps in Dufferin are being asked, once again, to consider terms for ceding waste management authority and/or the dumps to the county, we feel safe in predicting the concept will go where it has always gone before: nowhere.

Going back to the beginning of discussions about waste management in Dufferin almost a quarter century ago, only Orangeville, East Garafraxa and the then-village of Grand Valley were without a dump.

Subsequently, two of the six dumps were forced to close. First, it was Shelburne's, as the town had expanded beyond its approved limits. Then it was the East Luther dump near Luther Lake, as the Grand River Conservation Authority would not renew the township's lease on the site.

Of the four remaining dumps, Mulmur's is on permeable soil, Mono's has a leachate problem, but Amaranth's and Melancthon's appear to be in good condition.

In reality, though, how safe are they? We can only say the certificates of approval predate current requirements for landfill sites. Either the current regulations are an unneeded nuisance or the dumps approved under old regulations and subject to "grandfathering" are unsafe.

If the latter is the case, eventual enforced closure is inevitable. Is there a valid reason why a municipal council owning a dump that's bound to be closed should not consider its options before it has been ordered to close the dump?

We are bemused by the recorded 16-2 vote at county council on the innocuous topic of finding out what terms would apply for the county to take over waste management. The only councillors opposed were from Amaranth, and one of those is a professional environmentalist.

It is a fair assessment that environmental concerns on waste management in Dufferin have always taken a back seat to political expedience. We don't see that changing as municipal elections loom.

Even if most of the responses to the county's inquiry are favourable, a county takeover would require a triple majority, giving Amaranth and Melancthon an effective veto and preserving the current waste management hodge-podge.