The Concerned Citizens have offered to meet and brief all local candidates in the upcoming election. Most have accepted the offer. We have also offered to publish their statements on the issue. The following are direct transcriptions of the statements provided. Any additional statements will be published as they are received.

Robert Dorey – Napanee Mayor

More time and more research have only served to show more conclusively that the Richmond Landfill site is hazardous to its neighbours and to our community as a whole. As Mayor of Greater Napanee, I will ensure our town finds a responsible solution to our garbage issue by seeking out innovative, cost-effective means of reducing our overall garbage output. We can deal with our garbage by improving our recycling programme, by promoting composting at home and introducing a green bin programme to our community, by contracting with better landfill sites and researching alternatives to landfilling, and by cooperating with our regional partners to come up with a safer, healthier, long-term solution to managing the region’s waste.

Steve Medd – Napanee Councillor Ward 3

Recent scientific evidence (agreed to by the Ministry of Environment) has established that the Richmond Landfill is leaking leachate into the groundwater far off-site. Leachate has contaminated 6 off-site private domestic wells, which together with a significant swath of countryside are contaminated to above limits of the Ministry of the Environment’s Reasonable Use Policy. The contaminated groundwater contains numerous chemicals, including an industrial chemical called 1,4 dioxane which has been classified by the US. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a probable carcinogen.
The leaking Richmond Landfill and the proposed massive BREC Landfill pose a clear and present threat to the future of Greater Napanee and our closest neighbours: Tyendinaga Township, Deseronto and the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte. The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario has called it arguably one of the worst places in Ontario to build a landfill because of the complex fractured bedrock
Polluting activities like massive landfills will attract other polluting industries. The lands that they occupy and adjacent lands become sacrifice zones, which suffer ongoing air quality and water quality impacts. The Richmond Landfill is contaminating a groundwater aquifer that was once used for residential purposes and agricultural purposes like irrigation and watering livestock.
The economic lifespan of BREC is 20 years. The contaminating lifespan of BREC is hundreds of years. Our agriculture and tourism industries have longevities measured in generations – so why would we undermine these long term enterprises for the sake of 20 years of short term profit, which would be flowing to a US-based company?
Leachate from the Richmond Landfill is presently trucked into Napanee, pumped into the sewer system and then processed at the Napanee Water Pollution Control Plant. The provincial government only requires the analysis and treatment of a small percentage of the tens of thousands of chemicals found in leachate.
As the eastern gateway to the Bay of Quinte, Greater Napanee is blessed with four beautiful waterways: the Napanee River, Long Reach, Hay Bay and Adolphus Reach. These waters bring economic benefits to our community as well as great pleasure to fisherman, boater and hikers. Why then would we allow untreated leachate chemicals to slowly build up in the water and sediments of these natural treasures?
Over the years many people have invested their heart and soul, time and money into making Napanee a vibrant sports town and a place of healthy living. Many other people have committed themselves to building a top-calibre hospital we know as the Lennox and Addington County General Hospital, another beacon of healthy living.
The starting point for good health is nature’s infrastructure: clean water, air and soil. If we take a healthy environment for granted when deciding what developments to support, then we undermine important priorities like sustainable economic development, cultural development and the promotion of healthy living.
Napanee can do its part in managing waste by enhancing residential composting and recycling; and by attracting private investments to build a regional material separation facility or enclosed composting facility. However, the complex fractured bedrock in our region makes it an unwise and unhealthy choice for massive landfilling.

Ian Munro – Napanee Councillor Ward 4

The ongoing Environmental Review Tribunal appeal process regarding the monitoring of the Richmond landfill has demonstrated conclusively that Waste Management has been unable to identify massive leakage of contaminants into the vulnerable aquifer used by residents of Greater Napanee for drinking. This situation has existed for years and has still not been fully characterized despite aggressive pressure from citizens and local communities over all those years. There can be no confidence that this company could identify, locate and contain any leaks from the proposed BREC landfill which would be four times larger than the existing dump. Under MOE regulations the BREC landfill cannot LEGITIMATELY be approved under the Environmental Assessment Act given this glaring flaw.

I would fully support a Greater Napanee council resolution indicating the community is an unwilling host for the BREC megadump. I would support a resolution urging Waste Management to withdraw its plan for the BREC landfill. I also fully support the proposal submitted by citizens and local communities which urged the Ontario government to make it illegal to site new or expanded mega-landfills on fractured bedrock bases due to the risks of groundwater contamination.

Catherine Houard – Deseronto Councillor

I want to start by saying that Municipal Government is not new to me. I am employed with the County of Hastings and I carry out my duties with the goal of making it easy and comfortable for Residents to access our programs.
People expect that they can trust the information that they receive from their Government, at all levels, and they deserve just that. Unfortunately, it appears that the opposite of this happened when it comes to the Richmond Landfill. And even more unfortunately, people are now paying the price for that, and to say this upsets me, would be an understatement.
Heading into the Municipal Election, it is important for the Residents of the Town of Deseronto to know just how this situation affects them and how their Candidates feel about it. The contamination from the Richmond Landfill has been making its’ way through rivers and streams into the Bay of Quinte, the source of our drinking water. This directly affects Deseronto because it has the potential to diminish the quality of our drinking water and increase the Town’s cost of treating the water coming in from the Bay.
It is important for small communities to support each other, and if elected to Deseronto Town Council, you can expect my support to ensure that we preserve the quality of our drinking water for years to come.
Again, thank you for making contact with me about this vital issue.

Trish Dickinson – Deseronto Councillor

I strongly oppose any expansion of Richmond Landfill/ BREC.
If elected I will work with The Town of Deseronto Council to stand united with our neighbours in Tyendinaga Township, Greater Napanee and the Mohawks of Bay of Quinte to oppose any expansion of the Richmond Landfill/BREC.

Todd Steele – Stone Mills Reeve

Although outside the borders of Stone Mills, I feel that this issue affects the entire region. I fully appreciate that our waste has to go somewhere, but I feel that WM’s site in Carp or, preferrably, the LaFleche Environmental Centre is the best choice. The province needs to take a leadership role in how we get rid of our waste. If approved, the decision to allow the BREC is short-sighted at best.”

Tags: Beechwood Road Environmental Centre, BREC, Concerned Citizens, Dump, Leaking landfill, Napanee Election, Richmond Landfill, Waste Management, Waste Management Corporation