OPAL Says Thames River Is At Capacity

Friday, 11 December 2015 10:57

Oxford People Against the Landfill warned council about capacity loading - they say the Thames River would not be able to handle any waste

OXFORD COUNTY - Oxford People Against the Landfill continue to try and eliminate the threat of a landfill to the area.

Representatives were on hand at the most recent Oxford County Council meeting to brief councillors on where they currently stand. Chair of OPAL Alliance, Bryan Smith, explains what they presented at the meeting. "We did a presentation about what is called capacity loading, which is looking at the ability of the Thames River. We realize of course that the Thames River is at capacity, and that there is no room to have to deal with things that might be forced on us by other communities. We have no room to deal with imported waste liquid or solid that comes from other areas."

It has been a hard fought battle and Smith explains where the group is currently at. "We are waiting for the Minister to make a decision around the questions that would determine what kind of environmental assessment would need to be done. We're hoping that he has more than enough in the 46 000 letters from people in this community, and in the scientific input he has had from 5 accredited scientists to let us move ahead as a community, rather than spend all of our energy warding off something negative."

Smith spoke to Heart FM about what they are planning on doing moving into the new year. "The next step for OPAL is to continue our work with the Ministry to make the Minister and the staff understand what are the issues in our community, and also to work in collaboration with the County and other groups like the sustainability plan to make sure that we are planning a sustainable future. We think that if we have a Waste Reduction Act provincially nobody would have to be shipping garbage into Oxford."

Smith is pleased with the advancements they have made but knows more work continues to be needed.