Residents in and around Adelaide-Metcalfe who are upset with plans to build a biosolid facility near the Sydenham River, have until Wednesday to formally voice their concerns.
LaSalle Agri Fertilizer wants to build a facility that stores products made mainly from human sewage at the vacant lot at Winter Drive and Kerwood Road.
Those plans were made public in 2019, and now the company has taken its case to the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal (LPAT), an independent administrative tribunal responsible for hearing appeals on a variety of contentious municipal matters.
Area resident Andrew Campbell is vehemently opposed to the proposal and said residents who feel the same are being asked to submit their comments to LPAT no later than March 10.
"So the developers have taken this to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal -- to try to get the decision in their favour, I would assume -- and so it really is one of those things where residents need to now take another step forward in their opposition to it, which they have been opposed to for the last couple of years, by reaching out and making submissions to that tribunal."
Campbell said the main concerns are the environment, particularly the Sydenham River, neighbourhood drinking water, and the species at risk within the river.
"The fact that biosolids are basically the solids coming out of sewage treatment plants, a storage facility sitting at the top of the hill where at the bottom, less than 1,000 metres, is near the top of the Sydenham River, definitely concerns people."
Campbell said LaSalle has been forced from other sites, including one on Nauvoo Road at Highway 402 in Warwick Township, after being charged for bylaw non-compliance following odour, traffic, road safety, dust and environmental complaints.
"Obviously a facility like this nobody's really happy with it, and certainly they had issues within Warwick Township when there was a site there."
Campbell said while the environmental concern is large, local residents and business owners are also worried for their own neighbourhood and the smell the biosolids facility would bring into the area.
"It definitely worries the number of houses that are nearby, the seasonal trailer park, there's a ranch near, and lots of other community members, farmers in the area, all certainly have concerns about the idea of it being the location it is."
Campbell said residents are also encouraged to contact their MPP & MP to share their concerns about turning the agricultural land into an industrial site.
