Ex a dumping ground?
CNE, more parks on city list of garbage sites
By BRYN WEESE, SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 19th July 2009, 5:10am
Let's go to the Ex ... and take two bags of trash?
As part of the city's contingency plan to cope with the reeking mountains of garbage, 200 sites across Toronto have been selected as potential dumps that could be opened if the strike drags on.
One of them is a 2,272-tonne behemoth -- nearly five times the size of the Christie Pits pile -- at the CNE grounds.
"I've heard that rumour," said Councillor Brian Ashton, who sits on the CNE's board of directors. "What needs to be done is determine if the mayor has put his 'X' on the Ex grounds for garbage."
The CNE site is included in the ministry of environment's certificate of approval for the city's temporary dumps, but suspiciously absent from a list the city leaked earlier.
The 130-year-old Canadian National Exhibition, which attracts some 1.3 million visitors annually and is the fourth largest fair in North America, opens Aug. 21.
Last year, the Ex made the city about $1.2 million.
"It would be disastrous for us to have a garbage dump there, unless we had people guess how many bags there were and make it a contest," Ashton added. "(A dump) could have a serious impact on our attendance.
"Unless everybody loses their sense of smell in the next five weeks, it's not a good decision."
But it's not just the Ex that could stink.
According to the city's exhaustive list (see the complete list on Page 5), virtually no public space, especially parks, is spared.
The city has 23 dumps planned for High Park alone -- none of which have been opened yet -- and is prepared to store 12,490 tonnes of trash there for however long the strike lasts.
The city also has plans to open seven dumps in three eastern beach parks -- Woodbine, Balmy and Clarke.
All 200 potential dump sites have been approved by the ministry, although officials there are quick to point out these sites were chosen by the city, not the province.
In total, the city's potential dumps could store 174,084 tonnes of trash.
City officials, though, won't say how long it might take to fill those up.
"I think we're not really thinking that far ahead," said Patricia Trott, a City Hall spokesman. "At this point, we're doing everything we can to make sure that we come to a settlement (with the unions)."
But Geoff Rathbone, the city's general manager of solid waste, said the city had to "plan for all the contingencies," which explains the whopping and exhaustive list.
But the 21 sites the city has opened up so far -- five of which have been filled already -- have caused a lot of controversy in the past four weeks since the city's more than 30,000 inside and outside workers walked off the job.
The city has come under fire from residents over its decision to store trash at Christie Pits, Moss Park, Ted Reeve Arena and now Campbell and Clairlea parks. The growing mountain of garbage at the latter is only metres away from residents' backyards.
If the strike drags on and more temporary dumps are opened, something officials hope not to have to do until later this week, residents everywhere will be up in arms if they're not buried in garbage.
Mayor David Miller acknowledges the temporary dumps in the city's parks are "beyond regret."
"It's beyond regret how I feel about the fact that you have to have temporary dump sites," he said Friday.
"There's three of these in my own neighbourhood, you know, and I go by two of them every single day, so I understand very much."
But Miller added the city is not to blame.
"The City of Toronto isn't on strike," he said.
According to Rathbone, the current 21 temporary dumps are 40-50% full.
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