I thought the Richmond Landfill and its expansion into the proposed Beechwood Road Environmental Centre (BREC) site was only an issue for Greater Napanee and its environs until I recently discovered sewage sludge is being collected from septic lagoons next to the closed landfill and spread on farmland in the region. It has been discovered that this septic sludge comes from the same source that processes leachate from the Richmond landfill.

The septic lagoons are next to the early Richmond landfill site that started life as a burn pit on a farmer’s field in the mid-1950’s. In 1988 the landfill was well established and the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) approved an expansion, even with some concerns over the fractured limestone beneath.  This type of geology makes it easy for leaks escaping the landfill to travel underground, undetected, potentially showing up in wells and nearby creeks. After 10 more years of operation, Waste Management took over as the final proprietor of the Richmond landfill and in 1998 the company began an application to expand. In 2010, after a failed Environmental Assessment (EA) and incredible public pressure, the expansion was refused and the dump ordered closed by the MOE. By 2011, the landfill was finally closed and capped. Many in the area believed this was the end of landfill expansion threats but in 2012 the region is once again under siege.

Today, that original burn pit sits under 3 million tonnes of waste accumulated during times of more lenient collection guidelines. A disturbing detail is much of this dump is unlined and now shows signs of contaminating nearby test wells, reports Waste Management at their information evening in Napanee on June 27.

Fluid arriving at the bottom of a dump is called leachate. Since 2005 an average of 70,000 litres of this dark, toxic liquid is collected each day from the Richmond landfill and released into Napanee’s sewage system. Solids are removed and the treated fluid is released into the Napanee River. The solid sludge-like material is delivered back to the septic lagoons near the Richmond landfill to wait for delivery. In July, many large tanker trucks were observed pacing highway 41 delivering this sludge and spreading it on local farmland as fertilizer.

The challenges of farming with its escalating input costs, especially fertilizer, are well-known in the country. Many farmers respect their land and water and I wonder if they would spread this cheap alternative if they knew exactly what was in it; many thousands of chemicals, too many to test for. What happens when these chemicals combine? Consumers need to know if theses chemicals enter the meat and fat of animals being fed from this land. There is so much not known and will probably never be known.