Introduction

Proponent

The Regional Municipality of Durham and the Regional Municipality of York

Location

Municipality of Clarington

Type

Waste

Reference number

05080

Contact

Current status

Environmental assessment: approved, November 3, 2010

Project summary

The purpose of the undertaking is for the construction and operation of a thermal treatment waste management facility.

Project history

Environmental assessment: approved
Date submitted: July 31, 2009
Expiry of public comment period: September 25, 2009
Expiry of public comment period for Ministry Review: April 2, 2010
Decision date: November 3, 2010

Terms of reference: approved
Date submitted: December 31, 2005
Expiry of public comment period: February 6, 2006
Decision date: March 31, 2006

Environmental assessment

The Regional Municipalities of Durham and York (Regions) have obtained approval under the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act (EAA) for the construction and operation of a thermal treatment waste management facility. The facility will process up to 140,000 tonnes of post diversion residual municipal solid waste (the solid waste remaining after reuse, reduction, and recycling) generated by the Regions annually for a 35 year planning period.

The thermal treatment waste management facility is to be located south of Highway 401 on the west side of Osborne Road and north of the CN Rail corridor in the Municipality of Clarington. The site is approximately 12.1 hectares in area and owned by the Regional Municipality of Durham. The Durham Official Plan designates the site as an employment area. The site is surrounded to the north by commercial properties, to the east and west by undeveloped land and lands used for agricultural purposes, and to the south by the Courtice Water Pollution Control Plant. The Darlington Nuclear Generating Station is located 1.8 kilometres to the east.

The Durham and York Residual Waste Environmental Assessment study process was summarized in a report, and was submitted on July 31, 2009 to the Ontario Minister of the Environment for a decision, in accordance with Section 6.2 (1) of the EAA, and the approved Terms of Reference for the project. A Notice of Submission was published on July 31, 2009. The first comment period for the Durham and York Residual Waste Study EA lasted seven weeks, from August 7, 2009 to September 25, 2009.

An amended EA was submitted on November 27, 2009 and an addendum to section 9.2 of the amended EA was submitted on December 16, 2009 to address comments raised during the comment period.

A Notice of Completion of the ministry’s Review was published on February 19, 2010. The five-week public comment period on the Review expired on April 2, 2010, during which time any comments about the proposed undertaking, the EA, and the ministry Review could have been made. Also during that time, requests could be made for the Minister to refer the application to a hearing.

The Minister of the Environment with the approval of Cabinet made a decision to allow the proposed undertaking to proceed subject to strict conditions on November 3, 2010.

Terms of reference

Purpose of the study

The Durham/York Residual Waste Study is a joint study with the objective of finding a solution to manage the residual waste that remains after the application of the Regional Municipality of Durham’s and the Regional Municipality of York’s (Regions) at-source waste diversion programs. The Regions are working to address the social, economic, and environmental concerns of residents through an Environmental Assessment (EA) study, which will examine potential waste management alternatives. Both Regions already have concerted waste diversion efforts in place, as well as an established goal of a 60% diversion rate by 2008. Yet, even with the achievement of their waste diversion objectives, Durham and York do not have approved disposal capacity to manage their residual waste stream over the 35 year planning period (2011-2045).

The purpose of the undertaking is "to process–physically, biologically and/or thermally–the waste that remains after the application of both Regions' at-source waste diversion programs in order to recover resources–both material and energy–and to minimize the amount of material requiring landfill disposal. In proceeding with this undertaking only those approaches that will meet or exceed all regulatory requirements will be considered.

Study area

The study area encompasses the entire Regional Municipality of Durham and Regional Municipality of York.