THE FORMER DOMTAR MILL SITE AND ITS DUMP "BIG BEN", IN CORNWALL, ONTARIO
Domtar operated a paper mill on 89 acres in Cornwall, Ontario, until 2006. The original mill was built in 1881 and was acquired by Dominion Tar & Chemical in 1961 which then rebranded itself as Domtar in 1965.
In the early 1970's, Domtar persuaded the City of Cornwall to permit the dumping of its paper mill waste (sludge, bark and lime dregs) behind a shopping mall in the middle of the city. Part of this 45 acre dump was sodded over while dumping continued, and Domtar funded a "bunny" ski hill there, known as "Big Ben".
By the mid 1990's this Domtar dump was rapidly filling up. The problem grew as new waste water regulations required the Cornwall mill to also remove lignin and starch -- formerly discharged into the St. Lawrence River -- from its waste water. In response, Domtar began selling dewatered mill waste to Cornwall and area residents labeled as "Soil Conditioner”.
This "Soil Conditioner" was sold for home garden use and was used by local farmers as fertilizer until high levels of fecal coliforms and fecal streptococcus were discovered in the waste. The company then revealed to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment that some toilets and urinals at the mill join with the mill’s sludge generating system, instead of with the city’s sanitary sewers.
The paper mill site valued at around $18 million was sold for approximately $4 million to 2113467 Inc., Paris Holdings of Cornwall, with undisclosed terms and covenants relating to liability and clean up of soil and water affected, for over 120 years, by mill and human waste.
Major investors in PARIS Holdings, were Gerrard Rose, and Trenholm Healy.
PARIS Holdings has been fined $10,000 for environmental infractions since commencing demolition and dumping on the property.
Gerrard Rose's history includes a personal fine of $9,500, and one of $20,000 to his Rose Mechanical Limited, for environmental infractions.
Trenholm Healy was the owner of United Trust of Switzerland, the owner of Millenium Bank, which hosted an approximately $100 million Ponzi scheme.
Domtar still maintains control of the adjacent dump which is the source of leachate that contaminates ground water between the dump and the St. Lawrence River (with the City of Cornwall Water Purification Plant in between).
"No Smoking" is a must due to methane gas from the dump
The dump which is officially named, the "Big Ben Recreation And Landfill Area", currently receives waste and asbestos from the demolition of the decomissioned paper mill. And following a request by Domtar, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment has permitted increased dumping to include coal tar and bitumen waste contaminated soils, from another Dominion Tar and Chemical Co. Limited site in Cornwall. That manufacturing facility at 7th St. W. and Cumberland Street in Cornwall, produced "bituminous fibre" pipe under various names, from 1929 to at least 1976.
Even without this new dumping there are concerns over leachate (formed when water comes into contact with saturated wood residue) from the property's 80 metre high dump, built of mill waste. Leachate from wood residue storage and landfill sites contains phenolics, resin acids, tannins, and other compounds. And leachate acidity can release toxic (dissolved) metals from underlying soils. The decomposition of wood residue can also result in methane gas formation and the formation of hydrogen sulphide gas.
That’s threatening enough even if it were just tree bark and wood chips, but reports circulate that more than that was buried on the site. An examination of the ground water could confirm what else there is based on amounts of dioxins, mercury, arsenic, chromium, aluminum, cadmium, cobalt, copper nickel, lead, molybdenum, selenium, zinc… the stuff that comes from caustics, sludge and other pulp waste.
Further sources:
1.
Article by Sean Silcoff, Financial Post
Published: Monday, September 25, 2006
2.
Article by Terry Tinkess, Daily Commercial News and Construction Record
Published: Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Article by Terry Tinkess, Daily Commercial News and Construction Record
Published: Friday, February 16, 2007
3.
Labour Market Bulletin, Cornwall/Hawkesbury, Service Canada Centre
Issue: July-September 2006
4.
Maureen Reilly, Sludge Watch
Posted: Wednesday, December 15, 2004
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