Residents raise concerns about hazardous waste facility in Coniston

Coniston residents voiced traffic and safety concerns to GFL over its proposed hazardous waste facility rezoning at a public meeting on Friday.

A meeting was held recently at the Colonial Inn in Coniston to allow residents to ask GFL Environmental Inc. questions regarding the rezoning request with the City of Greater Sudbury.

The Jan. 16 meeting was held in advance of the matter heading to the city’s planning committee Jan. 26. It went to the planning committee originally at a meeting last November, but a decision was deferred.

Craig Logan, GLF’s regional director of operations, said they wanted to take the time and “hear the concerns and take it back to further digest it.”

“We’ve also had previous questions that we opened up to hear, to come back to the community, to give them the answers and hopefully solidify some of the concerns,” Logan said.

GFL has approval from the province and is now seeking zoning approval from the Greater Sudbury for a solid and hazardous waste management facility.

That requires an official plan amendment to continue processing and transferring the hazardous and non-hazardous waste.

Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer said the land is an appropriate area for the facility.

“We must remember that it’s an industrial park and so it is currently zoned for industrial use,” Sizer said.

“So the province has already provided the environmental compliance and approval … It’s for us to review and density and that kind of thing.”

Residents’ concerns included an increase in traffic, road safety and exactly what hazardous waste is being handled at the site.

“A lot of the concerns I hear from the residents it’s mostly the traffic,” said Coniston resident Eddie Astgen.

“The added amount of traffic coming into Coniston, leaving Coniston … in a community that seems very ill-adapted to heavy industrial traffic.”

Others were concerned at the lack of notice and information about what was happening.

“We really didn’t hear it from the city,” said Coniston resident Joanna Roellchen-Pfohl.

“There wasn’t enough notice provided to us by the city. And in the end, it’s ultimately going to be the city that makes this decision.”

Logan said GFL was at the meeting to listen to concerns.

“We’re certainly just business owners, operating here within the community and specifically within the industrial park,” he said.

“(We’re) here listening, hearing the concerns. Also, having a different perspective on it, what the community members are seeing, how we can address and approach safety.”

The meeting was organized by GFL with Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh’s support. However, due to a flight delay, she was unable to attend the meeting. Sizer stayed for the entire two and a half hours, while Ward 10 Coun. Fern Cormier left the meeting early.

Addressing concerns

Sizer said there are steps the city can take to address many of the concerns raised.

“I know that they spoke about crosswalks, they spoke about roads, about traffic calming and that type of thing,” he said.

“So there are several matters there, several mechanisms that at council’s disposal. And all of these will be reviewed as all we have to look for considering the traffic calming.”

McIntosh said she’ll be making some inquiries about short-term and long-term solutions to traffic concerns.

“For the long-term view of what can be done as this industrial park grows -- and we hope it does because it’s good for our economy,” she said.

“Is there an alternative route that can be looked at to getting the truck traffic out of the residential areas? It’s not a quick fix. It’s a longer-term fix, but I think that’s something that we as a city and the municipality can be looking at in the long term.”

Many residents said they thought the meeting addressed their concerns, but others were still concerned about the traffic that will be introduced into the already busy community.

GFL apologized for a previous miscommunication, saying 70 trucks will be accessing the property and clarified that 30 trucks in and 30 out will be the average.