Save the Bala Falls

Why is the District catering to the proponent, who is working without a required permit

As we noted in our November 22, 2017 delegation to the District Municipality of Muskoka’s Engineering and Public Works Committee meeting (copy here), while the proponent has received some permits from the District, the proponent changed their work without submitting the required information to the District.

The proponent was therefore working without the required permits from the District.

Anybody building a house would be required to have a Building Permit for the work they’re actually doing, yet the District:

• Did not require the proponent to have the required permits.
• Has allowed the proponent to continue working without all required permits for over a month.

While the District is being very secretive about what the permit conditions are and which were or are still not being met, we do know that the proponent still does not have a permit for their suspended dewatering pipe (photograph here).

The proponent has shown they have no regard for the environment. For example, while they decided to not use their insecticide-treated shipping containers as settling tanks, they have now placed three of these shipping containers directly into the Moon River, apparently as their downstream cofferdam. They have done this without testing to confirm whether the insecticide (which is known to be harmful to fish) is at a safe level, and without confirming there would be no invasive species introduced to the Moon River or other environmental damage.

The proponent still does not know whether their planned excavation work would release PCBs directly to the Moon River, and whether these PCBs would be pumped through their dewatering pipe.

After allowing the proponent to continue working without a permit for this dewatering pipe for over a month, the District apparently intends to approve issuing the required License of Occupation for this dewatering pipe, as noted on page 3 of the Agenda for the next District Council meeting (copy here). While such an unusual permit requirement would normally be first discussed at a meeting of the District’s Engineering and Public Works Committee, the District apparently intends to bypass this opportunity for technical review and public comment, by allowing this issue to instead proceed directly to the next District Council meeting.

If you are concerned; that the District is allowing work to proceed without the required permit, and that the District is bypassing that the Engineering and Public Works Committee first review this unusual permit application, you can e-mail District Council asking that:

1. The proponent be required to stop using this dewatering pipe until they have a permit to do so.
2. This permit request first be reviewed at a meeting of the Engineering and Public Works Committee at which the public has an opportunity to;
   • Learn about the many risks of this request.
   • Provide comment, to be considered as part of the Committee developing a recommendation on whether this request should be approved.

As District Council will be considering this permit request at their meeting this Monday December 18, 2017 at 7:00 pm, you should send an e-mail expressing your concerns before that. You can e-mail individual Councillors using their e-mail adddresses in the link here, or e-mail them all using this link.

It would be very helpful if you could attend this District Council meeting, which will be at 7:00 pm, this Monday December 18, 2017, at 70 Pine Street, Bracebridge. You can watch the live webcast of the District Council meeting using the link here.

As described here, the proponent received an Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA) for the pumping of water from their proposed construction site, however:

• For at least four days last week, they spilled untreated water into the Precambrian Shield parking lot. This is in contravention of the Environmental Protection Act.
   
• They did not immediately report this unauthorized spill to the MOECC, which is in contravention of their approval.
   
• They have not complied with their ECA as they did not install the required equipment.
   
• The equipment they did install has inadequate capacity, as a result for for days last week it overflowed, yet the proponent continued running their pumps, causing untreated water to be dumped into the Precambrian Shield parking lot.
   
• They are required to test the discharge water daily, but are not doing this.

It is very disappointing that rather then requiring the proponent to comply with their ECA, the MOECC apparently provided informal approval for the proponent’s deficient water treatment system, with the result that untreated water was pumped into the Precambrian Shield parking lot last week.

Of even bigger concern is that even though the proponent’s Environmental Site Assessment noted there may be polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) buried within their proposed construction site, the proponent has no evidence that the site is safe. As a result, their work could release PCBs directly to the Moon River.

As a result, we have sent this November 23, 2017 letter to the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, and await a response.

Our previous article described that the proponent must treat and test the water pumped from their proposed construction before it can be discharged to the Moon River.

The major problem and unacceptable situation is that the proponent’s water treatment system is gushing untreated water all over the Precambrian Shield parking lot. Julie Cousineau’s photograph below, taken on Friday November 17, 2017, shows the untreated water has been pouring for so long that it has formed icicles.

Or you can watch videos of this water:

1. November 13, 2017: The storage container overflows here.
2. November 16, 2017: The lamella tanks overflow here.
3. November 17, 2017: The lamella tanks overflow here.
4. November 17, 2017: Same day as above, but the icicles show that the overflow has been continuing for some time.
5. November 17, 2017: Same day as above, but another view.

This dumping of untreated water into the Precambrian Shield parking lot (and from there, it runs into the Moon River) is an unauthorized spill according to the Environmental  Protection Act, and has been reported to the MOECC’s Spills Action Centre, which results in the MOECC’s Barrie District Office investigating. This has also been reported to CTV Barrie, and the Township of Muskoka Lakes fire department. So far, there has been too little response to this unauthorized spill.

Even though the proponent has known about this spill of untreated water in contravention of their ECA since November 13, 2017, as of at least November 17, 2017 they had still not reported this to the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, which is also in contravention of their ECA.

The likely cause is that ground water is leaking into the proponent’s cofferdammed area faster than can be treated by these tanks, so the tanks are overflowing (similar to pouring water too quickly into a coffee filter). The proponent must therefore slow down or stop their pumping, even this affects their planned work. It is unacceptable to simply allow this untreated water to pour into the Precambrian Shield parking lot.

This demonstrates the proponent’s complete lack of respect for other’s property rights, and for their environmental commitments and obligations. It also shows the proponent’s continued lack of communication with the public.

While we are pleased to see that four of the proponent’s six insecticide-treated shipping containers (as reported here) are no longer in Bala, the proponent is still taking unacceptable environmental risks, for example:

1. Two of their six shipping containers are still in the Precambrian Shield parking lot, perhaps because the proponent pumped water into them, so this water may now be contaminated with insecticides and leaking into the Precambrian Shield parking lot.
   We request these remaining shipping containers to be properly disposed of.
    
2. The proponent has still not properly tested whether their proposed excavation site is contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), so their planned work could release this toxic chemical to the Moon River, causing irreparable environmental damage.
   We request an independent Qualified Person to plan and supervise the proper excavation of this Brownfield site, to ensure that harmful substances are not released to the environment.
    
3. The proponent’s 2013 Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) found the levels of Zinc in the ground water to be 26.6, 12.6, and 1,040 μg/L (millionths of a gram of Zinc per litre of water) for each of the three exploratory boreholes they drilled. As the last value is above the limit allowed by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC), the ESA suggested retesting. In response to our continued requests for this retesting, the MOECC recently reported that the proponent did retesting in October 2016, and they found that the levels of Zinc in all three boreholes are now “undetectable”, having spontaneously dropped to less than 5 μg/L.
   1. This is extremely unlikely. We have asked the MOECC Director, Central Region (whom we have met) to confirm she has personally seen these test results, but the MOECC refuses to provide this.
   2. As shown in the graphic in this article, the proponent’s testing was inadequate, so would more than likely have greater levels of contaminants, including PCBs.

   We request the laboratory test results be disclosed to the public.
    

4. The proponent would pump water from their proposed excavations through a plastic pipe suspended above the Bala south channel. They joined the many sections of this plastic pipe on-site, and each of these this pipe sections joined required a multi-step procedure to be carefully followed, or there could be leaks. As anyone that does technical work knows, testing is crucial, yet the proponent has not done any pressure testing, which is the accepted method. Other unaddressed concerns are:
   1. This plastic pipe is suspended from a cable, so would flex due to wind. It is not known if this pipe could tolerate flexing in colder weather.
   2. While the pipe has some insulation, to prevent freezing in colder weather, the pipe would need to be drained, but this would dump untreated water onto the Township’s Portage Landing, which is not allowed.

   We request to see:

   1. Drawings sealed by a Professional Engineer licensed to practice in Ontario confirming the installed pipe is suitable for the flexing and temperatures that would be encountered.
   2. Witnessed pressure test results showing there are no leaks in the installed pipe.
   3. Plans confirming the water in the pipe would not be dumped onto Portage Landing when pumping is stopped.
       
5. The proponent has not shown any concern for the environment, instead their priority is working quickly. The workers are on-site six and seven days a week, which means they are too likely to be taking short-cuts, such as creating this mess on November 8, 2017. While they claim this grout and oil are bio-degradable, their silt fence did not prevent it from getting out to the Moon River.
   The company providing environmental liability insurance to the proponent should be notified of the above.

The current status
Despite our many meetings with, and letters to, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC), on October 20, 2017 they issued an Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA) to the proponent. This was the last provincial approval the proponent needs for their proposed construction.

However, this last provincial approval was based on incorrect and incomplete information from the proponent, with the result that there are unacceptable risks that the proponent's work will cause irreparable harm to the environment, as summarized below.

We have therefore:

• Submitted a request to the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario that the issuing of this approval be Reviewed. Unfortunately this only results in the MOECC being asked to review its own decision, but it does provide greater exposure and high-level attention to the unacceptable situation that issuing this approval has created. A copy of our request is here.
   
• Also submitted a request for a hearing by the Environmental Review Tribunal.
   

Pumping PCBs into the Moon River
The Bala #2 Generating Station was south of the Bala north falls from 1924 until it was demolished in 1972:

• While polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have long been known to be toxic, in 1972 they were still legal and widely used in electrical equipment – such as what could have been left buried when the Bala #2 Generating Station was demolished.
   
• In 2013, the proponent did complete a Phase II Environmental Site Assessment (ESA), which should have identified the locations and concentrations of any underground contaminants. But the work for this ESA only investigated upstream of the likely source of contamination. Therefore, this ESA was inadequate and should not have been relied on by the MOECC during their assessment of the proponent's ECA application.

In fact, the proponent's own ESA reports that PCBs are an expected concern for abandoned generating stations, yet the work for the ESA made no effort to even locate the exact site of the Bala #2 Generating Station.

The proponent's current pre-construction work could therefore release PCBs into the Moon River and contaminate the surrounding land. To protect those on the Moon River and downstream of it, the proponent's ECA should be revoked. More detail is here.
 

Pumping insecticides into the Moon River
The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change requires that water from excavations be pumped through settling tanks so that sediments (being harmful to fish and their habitat) can settle out before this water is released to a water body such as the Moon River.

Rather than using "real" settling tanks, the proponent is trying to save money by instead buying used overseas shipping containers – six of these are currently at the north end of the Precambrian Shield parking lot.

• The serious environmental problem is that shipping container manufacturers treat the wood floors of their shipping containers with insecticide to prevent live foreign insects from arriving with the shipment. The active ingredient in the insecticides used is Cypermethrin, which is known to be harmful to fish.
  The proponent's current work would result in these insecticides being flushed out of the shipping containers and directly into the Moon River.
   
• Another major problem is that the shipping containers would leak contaminated water into the Precambrian Shield parking lot and onto land owned by the District Municipality of Muskoka.

We have therefore requested that the proponent not be allowed to use these shipping containers, which should be immediately removed from the Precambrian Shield parking lot. More detail is here.
 

SaveTheBalaFalls.com radio interview
As a result of seeing the destruction of Bala during this year's Cranberry Festival, Toronto radio station AM640 host Kelly Cutrara inrterviewed SaveTheBalaFalls.com on October 16, 2017. You can listen to the interview here.