Residents riled over reek, Brooks Road landfill found to be non-compliant

By Mike Renzella

The Haldimand Press

CAYUGA—Tensions ran high last week between local residents and representatives from both the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP), and Brooks Road Environmental, the company who owns and operates the landfill site located on Brooks Road in Cayuga.

The most contested issue at a public liaison committee meeting held March 4, 2020 at the firehall in Cayuga was odour.

“It’s sort of a methane-like chemical smell,” said local resident Diane Manto. “It’s so strong that it burns the inside of your nostrils.”

Manto, like many others who attended the meeting, lives within an approximate 2 kilometre radius of the landfill.

“When the wind blows west to east, it blows to a stretch of land where there’s nobody there for a long way, so nobody notices it. But as soon as there is a little bit of a disturbance and the wind starts whirling around or blowing east to west, that’s when it will come down our road and into Cayuga or other areas,” explained Richard Clark, a local homeowner who lives on Townline Road about one kilometre away from the site.

The MECP recently issued a director’s order to Brooks Road Environmental. Paul Widmeyer, District Manager of the Hamilton District Office of the MECP, said, “The order required the company to remove leachate from the site until the leachate level is at or below 196.75 metres above mean sea level by March 2, 2020. Currently, the leachate level at the site is above 196.75 metres.”

The order is now past the due date and the company is in non-compliance.

In a statement issued to The Haldimand Press, Brooks Road Environmental laid out the two steps they have taken to try to meet the Ministry’s standards and mitigate the odour issues.