Contaminated soil dumped on Oak Ridges Moraine

Save the Oak Ridges Moraine (STORM), along with other environmental groups Earthroots and Ontario Nature, said contaminated soil was found on the moraine, near Lakeridge Road.

“It started with local residents seeing these trucks going in and out,” said Debbe Crandall, STORM’s executive director. “Then the Ministry of the Environment did random testing, and that’s when they discovered it was contaminated.”

After Toronto City Council agreed last month to review how soil leaves its city’s development sites, the environmental groups are calling on other municipalities to do the same to protect the Oak Ridges Moraine.

The Oak Ridges Moraine provides drinking water for 250,000 residents in the GTA, according to the Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation. Since many developers who break ground in the GTA dump their fill on the moraine, Toronto councillors’ move to check soil for contamination is a step in the right direction but isn’t sufficient.

Oak Ridges councillor Greg Beros said any developer who wants to bring soil to Richmond Hill needs to obtain a permit.

The Moraine Can’t Wait campaign, spearheaded by the three environmental groups, delivered 8,000 signatures in a rain barrel to the premier’s office, to urge the province to review the plan.

“The province needs to re-engage with the Oak Ridges Moraine protection,” Crandall said.

The Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan is up for review in 2015.

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