Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
Volume 8, Number 2 • March-April 2000
Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat NewsThe Newsletter of the Great Lakes
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Although no piece of paper makes it mandatory, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE) has stated it’s their “intent” that the paper mill waste called Dombind will no longer be used as a dust suppressant on rural roads by the end of 2000. Citizens’ groups are holding paper company Norampac’s feet to the fire, watching to make sure they meet every deadline set by the MOE for moving towards installation of environmentally appropriate waste treatment technology at the Trenton mill, near the shores of Lake Ontario. Dombind has a very high biological oxygen demand, making it especially dangerous in aquatic habitats, and consistently contains dioxins. This waste ought to be treated properly instead of being spread inland and upstream from the paper mill.
Financial assistance from the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Fund has permitted the Dombind 2000 Network, a coalition including the Federation of Ontario Naturalists, Quinte Watershed Cleanup and other groups, with legal help from the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, to produce a pamphlet called DOs and DON’Ts of Dombind for the Year 2000. The intended audience is municipal roads departments — they need to be made aware of tougher restrictions for spreading Dombind that came about after the citizens’ groups won part of their appeal of a weak MOE control order concerning Dombind last autumn. Municipalities need to map locations where Dombind is to be spread and make those maps available to the public before spreading starts. They also need to abide by limits on where they can apply Dombind (e.g., keeping 50 metres away from any waterway) and how often over the summer season. The pamphlet will also be useful for rural residents wanting to keep municipal roads staff on their toes and seeking MOE action if Dombind spreading violations occur.
The battle to protect the Oak Ridges Moraine—the place where the rivers begin for much of south-central Ontario—continues at fever pitch (see Ontario Update, January-February Habitat News). All eyes are on the Ontario government, which has the power to fix the problem of unbridled urban sprawl onto the Moraine if only they had the political will to do so.
The Federation of Ontario Naturalists (FON) and the Save the Oak Ridges Moraine (STORM) Coalition having been working in tandem on both grassroots and political-level campaigns. In February, the two conservation groups presented Premier Mike Harris and his Minister of Municipal Affairs with a protection statement for the Moraine signed by 465 scientists. The statement called for tough provincial action, including establishment of a major no-development green corridor east to west on the Moraine, which spans 160 kilometres (100 miles) across the top of the Greater Toronto Area and beyond. It also calls for no development in the Moraine’s forests, wetlands, critical groundwater recharge and discharge areas, and in the drainage basins of its highly sensitive kettle lakes and wetlands.
In late March, FON and STORM held a joint news conference with the City of Toronto as the groups and the city were simultaneously filing applications under Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights calling for a review of the inadequacy of current laws and policies to protect the Oak Ridges Moraine. The Environmental Commissioner has forwarded the applications to Premier Harris, municipal affairs minister Tony Clement, natural resources minister John Snobelen and environment minister Dan Newman. Under the bill of rights, the ministers must decide on whether to carry out the requested review within 60 days and if they agree to do the review, must complete it within “a reasonable time.” In their applications, the FON and STORM have presented the government with a number of practical methods to achieve better protection for the Moraine.
For information on either Dombind or the Oak Ridges Moraine, please contact Linda Pim at the Federation of Ontario Naturalists at lindap@ontarionature.org or call her at (416) 444-8419 ext. 243.