Landfill Site 41 Vandalism Increases Costs
Midhurst/ September 7, 2007 - Preliminary construction on the approved landfill site known as Site 41 suffered overnight vandalism between Thursday, September 6, 2007 and Friday, September 7, 2007. Earth moving equipment was damaged along with other equipment. Ontario Provincial Police were notified of this vandalism.

This is not the first incident of vandalism occurring in connection to this County property. Recent verbal threats of similar activities and other types of civil disobedience had previously prompted the County to issue a statement noting that this type of activity cannot be tolerated as it interferes with a lawful process and incurs significant taxpayer dollars to mitigate any damages.

Project costs for Site 41 are unfortunately expected to increase because of vandalism and related threats and the now-required security measures to protect this County owned property.

The search for new landfill capacity for the four north Simcoe municipalities of the Town of Midland, the Town of Penetanguishene, the Township of Tiny and the Township of Tay began by those municipalities in the 1980's. After an extensive process, the Site 41 landfill design and operations plan was approved in 2006 by the Ministry of Environment. It previously received Environmental Protection Act and Environmental Assessment approvals in 1995.

Simcoe County assumed responsibilities for waste management in 1990. Previously, landfills and other waste facilities were managed by local municipalities. Upon assuming this role, the County began significant remediation work throughout many of the landfill sites it acquired in order to bring them up to acceptable Ministry of Environment standards. The County of Simcoe subsequently received widespread recognition for its remediation work and responsible waste management practices which continues today as other municipalities by using the County of Simcoe's practices as a model.

Because landfill mining efforts (reclaiming capacity in existing landfills) by the County were so successful, no new capacity was required for many years. Landfill Site 41 is the first completely new landfill to be built by the County of Simcoe due to the need for capacity in north Simcoe and the impact waste from this area has had on other County sites.

The County of Simcoe is composed of sixteen member municipalities and provides crucial public services to County residents in addition to providing paramedic and social services to the separated cities of Barrie and Orillia. Visit our website at www.simcoe.ca.