The Ontario ministry of the environment is waiting to hear when waste will be delivered to a Brooks Road dump near Cayuga.
"The ministry has asked the receiver what his intentions are for receipt of waste at the Edwards Landfill site and he has indicated that when there is something to report he will update us," said Jason Ryan of the ministry's Hamilton office on Dec. 16.
The Chronicle made several attempts to contact court-appointed receiver Brahm Rosen for comments. Calls were not returned by press time.
He is the vice-president of S. F. Partners Inc, the company appointed by an Ontario Superior Court judge to oversee the operations of the dump after it went into receivership.
Ryan said that the ministry asked Rosen to inform them of his intentions so a ministry inspector can be on site to ensure "the waste that is delivered is of a nature that is appropriate for this site".
As cold weather sets in, winterization of the liner becomes a possibility.
"It will be the responsibility of the receiver to ensure that steps are taken to protect the integrity of the liner system from exposure to the freeze/thaw cycle," said Ryan.
The ministry has requested documentation of these efforts.
Many conditions set out in the certificate of approval for the landfill are related to operations so they must be complied with when waste is coming in, said Ryan.
When asked if failure to drill off site wells was an unmet condition, he provided some background. In July 2007, the ministry ordered Haldimand Norfolk Sanitary Landfill Inc, the company that owns the site, to install five additional off-site monitoring wells. The order was made to enhance the current network of water monitoring around the site, said Ryan.
Two were installed.
"The receiver has repeatedly been informed by the ministry that the three remaining wells must be installed," he added.
Meanwhile the ministry continues its surveillance of water collected behind berms around the historic waste section, which contains toxins from a resin plant. In routine site inspections, scattered small pockets of water in low lying areas in this section are monitored, said Ryan. There is no reason to remove water at this time, he p>If removal becomes necessary, water from this section will be considered leachate and must be sampled to determine how best to manage it, said Ryan.
At a recent council committee meeting, Coun. Buck Sloat said the current management group responsible for Edwards Landfill are conducting business in a way that's detrimental to Haldimand County. He said two truck drivers tried to sneak in to the dump on the mud road section of Brooks Road instead of using the specified Highway 3 route.
Both trucks got stuck and Haldimand County staff were involved in the situation. Charges are pending, reported Sloat.
He asked physical services staff to find out if the dump is in violation of any conditions of the certificate of approval. He was personally aware of one. Appointed by council, he is a member of the public liaison committee. Its operation is a mandatory condition of the certificate of approval but the committee has not met since November 2007, he said.
Cayuga's councillor said he had a concern about the health and safety of residents. In 1991, the Ontario environment ministry declared the Edwards Landfill as the most toxic active site in Ontario, he noted.
Sloat and Coun. Tony Dalimonte pointed out that water was being pumped off the property at an unacceptable rate. Water flowed as far as a Highway 56 property and ditches were overflowing in the vicinity of the dump, reported Dalimonte.
Earlier Ryan said there was no limit on the number of hoses used to pump water off the site. Under the storm water approval on the site, rate of discharge is limited, he added.