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Page THE HERALD Wednesday August BEST AVAILABLE COPY GTA members are cautious about its future EDITORS NOTE Four Regions surrounding Toronto joined hands with the Region of Metro In an effort to solve the area a pen ding landfill crisis The has become known as the Greater Toronto Area committee In the following articles Herald s senior reporter Donna hell takes an tndeplh look the GTA its goals its members and lis leaders The towns and cities in five regions surrounding Metropolitan Toronto find now is the time to take respon for landfill In March of this year Peel Durham and York Regions as well as the municipality of Metropolitan Toronto banded together to form the Greater Toronto Area initiative The aim of the GTA is to find a long term solution to landfill crisis that has garbage piling up on expired landfill sites and has trucks loaded down with waste heading across the American border to New York But they dldn t go gently in the west Peel Region threatened recently to pull out of the GTA un til speaking with Jim Bradley On tano s Minister of the Environ And some Halton councillors sad their Region should go kick and screaming into the GTA where Halton would have little political clout Now you re going to have municipalities fighting each other over where the garbage goes said Burlington Coun Rob Forbes earlier this year There are actually municipalities in the GTA which spreads from Lake Ontano in the south Burlington in the west York in the north and the Town of Trucks rush in and out of this bus landfill site on Britannia Road in Peel Region Each member of he Greater Toronto Area of Halton Peel Durham and Metro Toronto will be asked to put a landfill con tingencj site on the table as its entry into the The landfill site could help host four million tonnes of Metroarea waste a Herald photo Metro needs cooperation Newcastle the east The Greater Toronto Area covers almost 7 square kilometres with a total population of almost four million people There will be a total four million tonnes of garbage a year from the five regions a report says The plan asks each region member to put a landfill site on the table for temporary use until a more permanent site is found The GTA could name that Site in the same year the Acton quarry would be ready for landfill if it is approved Where the refuse will go is a topical issue throughout Halton and in Halton Hills A local citizens group formed two years ago to fight a proposed landfill in the Acton quarry POWER Protect Our Water and Environmental Resources member John Minns from Halton H Us spoke before Regional council earlier this year He said POWER was concerned that the Acton quarry on Sideroad 22 could become Halton contingency land fill site for entry into the GTA produces million tonnes of waste a yeqr r Local consortium Reclamation Systems Incorporated RSI earlier this year applied to the pro vincial government to use the quarry site for landfill If I were living in Acton or Halton Hills I d be very very wor ned right now Milton Coun Bill Johnson said of the Acton quarry connection to the GTA A Toronto daily newspaper report over a month ago revealed a prvate list of Ministry of the En With a population of 2 23 million people in an area of 630 square kilometres Metropolitan has more problems to deal with than landfill alone But the municipality which in eludes East and North York York Scarborough and Etobicoke has 1 hopes for the Greater Toronto Area initiative which includes Halton Peel York and Durham Regions Metro presently has two landfill sites outside its boundaries One is located in the Valley near Canada Wonderland in York The other landfill site is in Brock East in Durham But is Toronto the shark feared by Burlington Regional Coun Rob Forbes months ago when Chairman Peter presented the GTA to Regional councillors Metropolitan Toronto s role is to be an equal partner with the other municipalities Metro Chairman Alan Tonks said of the municipality that manages 3 million tonnes of waste a year for three regions A long term solution to land fill can only be reached with the co operation of our regional neighbors This is really the first major in illative of the various municipalities coming together There are several private pro posals under discussion for landfill at Metropolitan Toronto but the ty has not picked a contingency site of its own Chairman Tonks said Metro Toronto is meeting with Durham to discuss a site in Durham Region to be shared by the two regions Mr Tonks would not say where the site would be If the GTA is successful with long term landfill planning its mandate will extend into housing and transportation planning both sore spots for the City of Toronto and its metropolitan area The city is now reviewing the Toronto Transit Commission and reassessing the land based tax There are plans to lm prove the harborfront in Toronto and to solve the housing crisis and drug abuse problem Mr said GTA needs publicity Durham says Durham Region host of a land fill site and a site for low level nuclear waste was one of the first members of the fiveregion GTA to put forward a landfill contingency site Durham Regional Chairman Gary Herrema says the Greater Toronto Area initiative which in eludes Halton Peel York Gary Herrema Durham Regions and Metropolitan Toronto will enhance the way waste is being managed over the long term But he added that there are pro blems getting across the message regarding the GTA s role People don t know enough about it That s the problem in the he said There are those who opposed the fiveregion committee for political reasons he said There are a lot of people wan ting to be negative about the GTA You get more ink Durham calls itself one of the leaders in recycling Mr said bis region is one or two percentage points behind Halton Halton recycles 15 9 per cent of its waste while Durham recycles 12 percent Durham is a large region at 2 square kilometres and with nine municipalities and a population of 348 000 people This region east of Toronto hosts a landfill site owned by Metro Toronto Talks are presently under way to share a second landfill site in Durham as Metropolitan to s contingency site The Metro chairman would not specify the location of the site The landfill site chosen by Durham as its entry into the GTA is a 200acre site in Pickering It has a 50metre bed of very hard clay Mr Herrema says And it is close to a sewer line Durham faces problems associated with storing low level nuclear waste The Region is also concerned that recycled waste may not have a market Finding a market for the waste is a gigantic he said This is only the beginning of guidelines for overall policies com plementing each other he said of the GTA s future We have to pro ve we can do this landfill before we go onto the next project choices for landfill The report names the Acton quarry as a possible silt But Halton Chairman Peter said he is sure if the Acton quarry at Untied Ag Ltd site is chosen as a contingency site it would not pass an environmental assessment has chMen a con site a must for official entry into the GTA The GTA mandate is to reduce landfill by 25 per cent in and by per cent by the year 2000 By some accounts has already met the per cent mark Mr Pomeroy said But excluding scrap metal and cardboard which are difficult to count is diver ting 15 9 per cent of its waste mak it the GTAs waste diversion leader The GTA will evaluate itself at monthly meetings These meetings will include three members from each Region including the Regional Chairman a Regional administrator and a third member who could be a The five regions will agree to participate for throng term of the on January Contracts for potential landnlmtes will be awarded February and the environmental assessments of those sites will begin In November of next year the contingency plans will be presented to the Minister of the En vironment for approval Con tingency plan approval will take piece December 1991 If the GTA finds a successful solution to landfill the five regions will pursue initiatives in transit and housing studies say Regional Chairman Gary Herrema from York and Chairman Alan Tonks from Metropolitan Toronto is leader in recycling waste Halton Region home of Halton Hills Milton Burlington and is considered the Greater Toronto Area leader in waste recycling But this was born of necessity says Regional Chairman Peter Halton explored waste management because it ran out of landfill sites before Durham Peel York and Metropolitan Toronto did Halton recycles 15 per cent of its waste each year That figure would be at the 25percent mark projected for the GTA by if metals and cardboard were includ in the count s waste management director John produces tonnes of waste a year Halton is the leader in the GTA with waste recycling but it grew out of need Chairman said The Region spends million month to export garbage to Niagara Falls and New York state Entry into the GTA is a move to protect Halton interests said the Regional chairman With or without s involvement we would be included anyway He said abstaining from GTA in volvement would be a dangerous approach for Halton Reaction to the GTA in Hgfcm has been fairly mild because a landfill site for the contingen cy plan been chosen the chairman said But initial reactions from some Regional councillors was vehe ment Many were opposed to what they say would be getting into a pool with a bunch of sharks The jest shark said Coun Rob Forbes of Burlington is Toronto Tipping fees for taking waste to transfer sites in Hills and Burlington have increased by over last year to a tonne ac cording to John Lefennk Opera lions Manager for Disposal in Georgetown Pete has a threeyear con tract with Halton Region They pay us one price for ing the garbage to Walker Brothers Quarries in Niagara Falls or to St Catharines They do that because they haveto be fair to the citizens of flhey have to charge 50 across board Mr said Brampton and Toronto pay less for tipping fees because they do not have to transport waste outside their own regional boundaries Halton s contract Niagara Falls expires next year The Region s contract with Occidental Chemical Corporation in New York for burning waste expires in 1992 But the Region recently received approval for a landfill site on Highway 25 in Milton with a five- million tonne landfill capacity That site will operate for 20 years Landfill is an important issue in Halton Region But growth is another problem faces Growth presents the problems of water shortage and road decay The GTA will plan a strategy for long term waste disposal and will then look at other crossregional issues Mr Pomeroy said We ve already started to talk about planning in a larger con text