Soil removed at illegal fill site in Georgina 'contaminated': town

Town says, however, there should be 'no further concern from an environmental point of view'

Yorkregion.com
November 28, 2018
Heidi Riedner

What some area residents had feared regarding an illegal dump site in Baldwin was confirmed after testing determined approximately half of the fill removed from the Smith Boulevard site  earlier this month had some trace of contamination.

A total of 500 loads were removed from the property located at 6017 Smith Blvd. during a month-long, court-ordered removal process initiated by the town after illegal fill operations had started up at the property at the end of May.

While various construction material and debris from a demolition site made up close to half of the fill removed, contaminated soil that would typically be found at an industrial site or facility made up the other half, the town’s communications manager, Tanya Thompson, confirmed on the heels of an earlier update regarding the month-long removal process.

“Since all of the contaminated soil has been removed, and testing has been done to verify that all the contaminated soil has been removed, we believe there should be no further concern from an environmental point of view,” Thompson added.

While an expanded court order allows the town to seek removal costs from the owner of the Smith Boulevard property, the town still does not have a final price tag for the operation.

Contractor GFL was hired by the town to begin removal operations Oct. 15 at 6017 Smith Blvd., which has long been the subject of controversy over fill operations dating back to 2003.