Wonder Dump
Adams Mine dump: A tourist's dream or toxic nightmare?

HighGrader Magazine July/August 1999
by Brit Griffin
Well, we've all heard of dumpster diving. You know, when homeless people are forced to scavenge for meals in the big blue dumpsters outside fast-food joints and grocery stores. In the inner cities of the United States, dumpster diving has become a way of life for many poor folk.
But if the latest development in the Adams Mine Landfill saga is to be taken seriously, there could droves of tourists choosing to bring a whole new meaning to the notion of dumpster-diving at the controversial mega project proposed for Kirkland Lake.
These folk wouldn't be diving for food. They'd be be scuba dumpster-diving in the water-filled pits of the abandoned mine. Or how about a refreshing splash into the pits from a giant waterslide?
This latest angle on the selling of the dump comes from Bill Steer of the Canadian Ecology Centre in Mattawa. This was the dream team responsible for the Timber Train project located in Mattawa, Ontario. By all accounts, the Timber Train is a very savvy and successful tourist venture. Maybe trains and wilderness can attract eco-tourists, but isn't garbage a harder sell?
Not according to Mr. Steer. In fact, says Steer, when it comes to garbage, the sky is the limit. "You don't have an old iron ore mine there, you have a gold mine of opportunity."
The way Steer sees it, the dump (which is slated to take urban and industrial waste from the cities of Southern Ontario) could become a high-profile tourist attraction.
There are five pits at the Adams Mine site, with only one being readied to receive big city waste (at this time). Steer believes the other pits present a myriad of possibilities. He envisions an educational tour with viewing platforms and activities ranging from scuba-diving to rock painting.
Referring to himself as a consensus environmentalist, Steer enthuses that the Adams Mine Landfill provides a hands-on learning opportunity that will encourage people to re-think their consumptive lifestyles.
"People will be awed by the spectacle of garbage but also educated by it. We all create garbage but Kirkland Lake, by becoming the garbage capital of the world, can show people they are doing something. We can disseminate information about reducing and re-cycling to change behavior patterns."
Joe Muething of the Adams Mine Intervention Coalition is shaking his head over this latest garbage make-over. The way Muething sees it, the problem with garbage dumps is that it's a case of out of sight is out of mind.
"I think this is absurd. People tend to not deal with issues of consumption even when the dumps are close to where they live. As long as these mega-landfills provide a cheap and easy way to get rid of waste, it just prolongs people's high consumption levels."
Muething points out that tourists in Toronto don't take the 20 minute drive up to the massive Keele Valley Dump, so why would they drive 700 kilometres to see one in Kirkland Lake?
Steer, however, maintains that the key is linking the dump to the growing interest in environmental tourism. He says that anything can be a winner if you make it entertaining and educational. It's all in how you promote the site.
Muething finds the image of folks trying to scuba-dive while being bombed by sea-gulls a hard sell.
Muething says that anyone who has ever been to a dump, let alone a mega-dump, finds the surroundings less than attractive. "There's lots of seagulls, and where there's lots of birds, it's dirty. There'll be a fair bit of flies, it's dusty. There is debris that gets blown around."
But Steer, who was a guest speaker at a forum promoting alternatives ideas in Kirkland Lake, is adamant that the landfill presents state-of the art technology that will promote responsible land-filling.
"At the Adams Mine landfill, the technology is going to do it's job. It is a chance to showcase state of the art technology. That makes it a great eco-attraction."
Muething says that the dump is being sold with rhetoric rather than proof. From the beginning there has been serious doubt as to whether this technology will `do the job' as Steer claims.
Muething says that given the experimental nature of the Adams Mine design, and the sheer size of the dump, the possibility for serious problems are compounded.
Unlike traditional dumps built in dry, clay surroundings, the Adams Mine is a series of fractured rock pits set in the water table.
Notre Development, the North Bay company pushing the project, claims that these seeming drawbacks will create the optimum conditions for an experimental method known as "hydraulic containment".
Hydraulic containment works on the premise that as long as water is pouring into the pits from the surrounding ground water, no leachate will be able to leak out. Pumps will be in place for next 100 years to keep the water level in the pits low.
Given the fact that the pits are in fractured rock, if leachate did escape, tracking the source of the leachate contamination would be virtually impossible.
And when the pits are filled with 20 or 30 million tonnes of waste, there will be considerable pressure deeper in the pits to push outwards.
Hydraulic containment works in computer modelling when there is an even flow all around the pit. Questions have been outstanding since day one about the uneven and highly fluctuating water pressure in the ground surrounding the Adams pits.
At the time of the Environmental Assessment (EA) hearings, the EA panel, in a split decision, granted conditional approval for the landfill. But the caveat was, they wanted more drilling done to test the uniformity of the water pressure.
The Board called for the drilling of two angled boreholes, to be drilled beneath the bottom of the South Pit. Further drilling was done, but the results have not been brought back before the EA panel. The decision to give the green light now lies in the recesses of the Ministry of Environment, under a Premier who is very keen to see the initiative basedin his home town get off the ground.
So what does the new drilling show? Paul Bowen, a professional engineer specializing in hydrogeology, thinks that there is definitely reason to be worried.
In an affidavit filed this past spring, Bowen states: "...the new borehole results confirm the presence of conductive bedrock structures which would cause or permit the outward escape of leachate from the South Pit during the gravity drainage phase."
Bowen is also skeptical about the latest round of computer modelling based on the new borehole results. The modelling was conducted for the proponent, Notre Development. The computer modelling shows that as the level of the leachate in the pit rises, so will the water levels in the surrounding rock.
But as Bowen points out in the affidavit, prior computer modelling did not accurately predict the results of the latest borehole testing. Bowen does not think that the modelling can "accurately predict the complex and variable geologic conditions and ground water levels in the boreholes".

Steer refers to those fighting the dump as his `extremist colleagues". To his mind, the dump is an asset to a community that has seen hard economic times. "Let's be realistic, a big Honda plant is not coming to Northern Ontario." But he says we can tackle these hard times with unusual and creative approaches. About the prospects of the dump he is resolutely enthusiastic. "I get excited every time I go there."
Muething says the opposition to the dump hasn't changed, even though the community has suffered serious economic set backs. "I'm appalled that the issue of jobs is being dragged into the debate at this time. The point of the EA hearing was to determine if the project was environmentally safe. Given that there was a split decision by the EA Board and that the approval process will be going to appeal this month, the issue of safety is still outstanding."
The Divisional Court of Ontario will have a stab at determining whether the EA Board's decision was appropriate. Essentially the conditional judgment left responsibility for final approval with a Ministry of Environment bureaucrat. It is this delegation of a Board function that is being challenged in court. So it might not be the time to rush out for those goggles and flippers. For this summer, anyway, better stick to the hometown dump.

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