Harlan House writes to the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. We reproduce his letter here with permission.

Follow Harlan at www.harlanhouse.com

Mr. Gord Miller, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario
1075 Bay St. Suite 605,
Toronto, On.
M5S 2B1

Dear Mr. Miller,

Life in a fish bowl is complicated.

What you are looking at, in the photographs is my little garden fishpond. It is getting its yearly tune up. The pond is a result of using what was there…a hole in the rocks. This little pond is about 10 minutes away from the Canadian Waste Management’s old and proposed new Richmond dumpsite.

We have something in common that I would like you to know about.

Both are on fractured limestone, and both are leaking. I have had to parge this little fishpond, so it will hold water, every year for all 25 years of it’s life. Things happen on fractured limestone. We have the usual freeze and thaws, tremors from earthquakes, and with every close strike of lightning, the whole ground shakes. In hindsight, it was silly of me to think that I could plug every hole in every little rock surface forever. I think that Waste Management has pretty much the same problem that I have, and while my pond is just a few square metres, imagine the problems in such a huge place as the Richmond dump site. Same fractured limestone, same problem…well not exactly.

My little pond leaks water, and their big pond leaks toxic leachate.

A little water is not a problem, but leachate in the water that runs into Mohawk territories and Lake Ontario will be anything but a little problem. I don’t think you want that.

Please do the right thing, and put an end to the possibility of a new dump at the Richmond site.

Kind regards,

Harlan House RCA

c.c.
Honorable James Bradley
Chief R. Donald Maracle
Mike Bossio

Tags: Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Leaking Land, Leaking landfill, Napanee, Waste Management, WAste Management Corp