In our last issue, the Adams Mine dump was facing a rough ride as it faced off against increasing opposition in the north and better positioned competitors in the south. But in the space of that one issue, the Adams Mine proposal suddenly pulled ahead of the pack, left all its competitors in the dust and pushed its way into international notoriety. Which, of course, leaves a lot of unanswered questions as to how residents of Canada's most sophisticated city found themselves in bed with a very divisive dump plan and one of America's more controversial corporate citizens.
And so for the edification of our readers we bring you the latest installment of.......

The Filth and the Fury
or Mayor Mel teams up with the Bad Boys
by Brit Griffin HighGrader Magazine Sept/Oct. 2000
Three hundred million litres of contaminated groundwater a year. That's the price Temiskaming residents are being asked to pay to help Toronto out with its garbage woes. The three hundred million litres represents the annual amount of groundwater that is expected to flow through the fractured walls of the Adams Mine and become contaminated with toxic leachate.
Toronto is banking on the premise that a massive pumping system will be able to collect all the contaminated groundwater before it has a chance to spill out through the numerous cracks and fissures in the pit walls. The pumps will then send the toxins to the surface where they will undergo treatment before being flushed back into the surrounding environment - good as new. Well, that's the claim.
This contamination of groundwater will go on for 100 years after the dump has closed. Then the pumps will be turned off and the toxic castoffs of 20 years worth of TO living will be left to gurgle in the Temiskaming water table for another 1,000 years.
And so who will be entrusted with the job of making sure the pumps run for the century after the dump profits cease?
Step forward Waste Management Inc (WMI), the Houston-based waste giant with a rap sheet that could probably stretch right up that rail line from TO to the Adams Mine. Environmental infractions, securities fraud, price-fixing, illegal dumping, you name it. Waste Management seems to have done it.
The company has, ironically enough, earned the corporate sobriquet "Bad Boy" because of the so called Bad Boy laws in some American states used to assess a companies past compliance record. HighGrader readers will no doubt remember Mayor Mel Lastman's days as the furniture hawking "Bad Boy" who would not be undersold by anyone.
And now, through their Canuck spawn (Canadian Waste Services), WMI is set to be in control of a huge chunk of Ontario's landfill capacity and will be calling the shots over waste management in the province.

In August NDP Environment Critic Marilyn Churley produced a long list of charges and convictions against WMI which she called a corporate "repeat offender. A simple web search produces numerous sites providing long litanies of WMI skullduggery.
But Toronto Works Committee, the folks in charge of finalizing the deal, are apparently still trying to get a handle on the issue.
Joe Torzsok is the assistant to Metro Works Chairman Bill Saudercook. Torzsok says they are still looking into WMI's reputation but that so far all he's seen about the matter is the press release and background information NDP Environment critic Marilyn Churley released.
"When I saw it (the information package) one of the things that jumped out at me was that some of Marilyn's information was going back to, well, that the company did something in 1951. How far back did they (the NDP) track it is one question I have because, in all reality, alot of things may have changed since 1951 and I pretty darn well hope they have."
(HighGrader checked the package Torzsok is referring to and found the earliest allegation stemmed from 1970, though the majority cited were from 1991 and on. WMI was founded in 1968).
Since Toronto Works is bullish on the rail cycle possibilities offered by the Adams Mine it might be helpful to check into the WMI Rail Cycle project south of the border. The Bolo Station Landfill project in San Bernadino County, California proposed to haul big city trash out into the Mojave desert for dumping. Speaking to Business Press/California in 1996, Rail-Cycle project manager Glen Odell said "The days of the urban landfill are simply numbered".
So were his: in 1998 the Superior Court of the State of California Special Criminal Grand Jury indicted Glen Odell, several of his fellow employees, Bolo Station/Rail Cycle and WMI on some 23 counts of corporate espionage. Among the charges were conspiracy to commit fraud, illegal wire-tapping, misuse of trade secrets and receiving stolen property. Much of the cases hinges around the efforts of the Rail-Cycle proponents to sabotage the efforts of the Cadiz Land Company in their opposition to the dump.
Testifying in the case of the District Court (Arizona) vs. Cynthia Eisenberger (a woman accused of stealing computer files from the Cadiz Land Company), Joe Lauricella recounts how he was hired as a 'consultant' to the Rail Cycle project in May of 1995.
Operating under an alias, Lauricella was involved in setting up a 'puppet' environmental group in the area called FACE Environmental Coalition. The idea behind the environmental group was that "it would look good in the newspapers" to have a local group opposing Cadiz and supporting the landfill. Lauricella testified that the group "existed "in name only and we used it to push Rail-Cycle's own agenda."
Reporting directly to Rail Cycle Manager Glen Odell, Lauricella wrote speeches and organized locals in going after the dump's major opponent - the Cadiz Land Company.
Lauricella testified, "I think as Glen put it, the idea was if Cadiz stood in our way, which of course it was doing at the time, to make sure that the Cadiz Land Company went down the tubes. Submarine it, that was the idea."
Lauricella said he was involved in everything from starting rumors, calling in crank calls to Drug Enforcement Agencies, to spreading discontent among the workers at Cadiz Land Company. During his testimony, Lauricella also refers to Bolo Station/Rail Cycle's penchant for tinkering with the technical reports on the landfill site. For example, there was some controversy in this case over the water recharge rates and Lauricella recounted how they had to alter the water studies because it confirmed Cadiz' estimation of the recharge rates and water levels.
"But when their actual report shows the water rate was rising, then all of a sudden we had to make it sound like it's going the other way. And that's when we changed it around."
Lauricella also testified that he and Odell had a good laugh at the gullibility of both the locals and the media. Presently doing 6 years in the crowbar hotel, Lauricella probably isn't laughing too much anymore. The indictments outstanding against Odell and company are set to go to trial this month.
Garth Fowles of Canadian Waste Services in Oakville says he can't comment on the Rail Cycle case in Califorinia because he has never heard of it.

And what does Toronto Works make of all the accusations against WMI? Torzsok maintains that he's doubtful any company could get as big as WMI without tarnishing their reputation to a certain extent. But he questions whether all environmental infractions are as serious as the general public might think.
"I'll give you an idea of what some of these things are," Torzsok explains, "At Toronto's Keele Valley landfill, the last time it was cited for a violation, the Ministry actually wrote us up for this, we left leaves uncovered at the tipping face. So if you just looked at this, that darn City of Toronto is being cited by the Ministry for improper operations at Keele Valley. You know what I mean?"
But it wasn't leaves that state inspectors found during a three day crack down in 1999 at a WMI landfill in Virginia. Officials estimated that they seized several hundred pounds of medical waste headed from New York to a WMI landfill in Virginia (and this after previous violations). A Virginian court penalized Waste Management of Virginia $150,000 and another $125,000 after blood, bloody fluids and 'sharps' were found in the waste bales.
As well, a judge in a New York administrative court, who was looking into a WMI landfill expansion application, found issues of 'sufficient gravity ", enough to raise "sufficient doubt about its (WMI's) ability and trustworthiness to comply with the requested permits".
Among the infractions noted were 37 incidents resulting in either criminal convictions or civil penalties over $25,000. Some of the fines levied against WMI were up into the six figure bracket, including one in Pennsylvania (1991) for $3.8 million after WMI doctored its records to receive excess tonnage. They were also slapped with a $10 million fine in 1992 after failing to report hazardous waste spills.
And, according to WMI's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as of March, 2000 the Company's subsidiaries were facing four proceedings for environmental infractions where the sanctions could exceed $100,000.

Interestingly enough, the Adams Mine isn't the first time a second placed WMI bid emerged into the front ranks. In February, Hernando County, Florida awarded WMI a garbage collection deal, despite the fact that WMI was not the lowest bidder. HighGrader contacted Hernando County's Director of Purchasing Jim Gantt and confirmed his reported comments that WMI's lobbying techniques were the "worst he has seen in twenty years."
(According to the US-based Centre for Responsive Politics, WMI shelled out $680,000 US on lobbyists in 1998.)
In 1999 WMI found itself embroiled in some white-collar shenanigans resulting from book tinkering prior to its merger with USA Waste. In hot water over inflating past profits, WMI eventually ponied up a $220 million dollar fund to settle claims from a class action lawsuit alleging financial fraud.
Nearly 20% of WMI's latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (dated 5/12/00) is devoted to WMI's ongoing legal entanglements; civil suits from former employees and stock holders; an EPA civil investigation of "alleged chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) disposal violations" at WMI Massachusetts; a suit by the estate of a Shayne Conner, who, the plaintiffs argue, died in November of 1995 due to "biosolids that were applied to a nearby field by the Company's BioGro business unit".
Still, despite these troubles, the company continues to grow. In fact, WMI's penchant for mergers and acquisitions has lead to numerous run-ins with the Anti-Trust Department of the US Attorney General's office.
Recently, WMI (worth 9.2 billion on 1997) and USA Waste Services (worth 2.6 billion) opted to tie the knot.
The Department of Justice and the Attorney Generals from 13 States intervened on the grounds that the move would undermine competition in the waste business. A settlement was negotiated which allowed the acquisition but required the companies to off-load waste collection and disposal operations in 13 affected states.
Hand in hand with this tendency towards monopoly practices are allegations of price squeezing at the dump gate. As reported in Solid Waste Online, WMI "shocked" its customers in the spring of 1999 with major increases in tipping fees. At one Virginian landfill prices shot up from $13.85 to $28 and at a Chicago site from $11.75 to $28. WMI said the increases were in relation to "availability of other disposal options and supply and demand".

City of Toronto works officials have been defending their upcoming marriage into the WMI family saying the Canadian-based subsidiary Canadian Waste Services has a clean record.
Garth Fowles of CWS explains, "We don't have any issues here in Canada. You have to remember that we are a very large corporation, and we have issues from time to time but we act very quickly to deal with them. We are absolutely committed to compliance."
But CWS is getting involved in the litigation scene with the town of Petrolia, following CWS' takeover of their landfill site. " I can't say too much now because we're approaching our court date," says Petrolia Mayor Ross O'Hara, "but we're in a legal conflict with Canadian Waste Services over whether or not they lived up to our agreement."

And when it comes to the issue of market control, CWS may just be a chip off the old block.
Since entering the Canadian waste industry in 1996 it has become the largest waste management company in the country. In two separate mergers it acquired Philip Environmental and Sanifil Inc. In 1997 it snagged Allied (formerly Laidlaw) and then acquired the landfills under the control of WMI Canada (then a separate company from the U.S.-based WMI).
All of this activity did not escape the notice of Industry Canada's Competition Bureau. In 1997, the acquisition of Allied Waste Holdings (Canada), gave CWS major ins to the solid waste collection markets in Sarnia, Brantford, Ottawa and Outaouais. It was the view of the Director of Investigations under the Competition Act that these acquisitions would enable CWS "to significantly raise prices" in those markets and "substantially lessen or prevent competition". CWS was forced to divest itself of holdings in Sarnia, Brantford and the WMI assets in Ottawa and Outaouais.
In March of 1998 the Bureau stepped in when CWS was finishing up its WMI Canada acquisitions. A settlement was negotiated and CWS divested itself of an Edmonton, Alberta landfill site. Now CWS is contesting a Competition Tribunal ruling over its acquisition of some of BFI's assets. At issue is the acquisition of the Ridge landfill in Blenheim, Ontario. It will go to a hearing this fall.
According to the Competition Bureau the acquisition of the Ridge by CWS is likely to affect both the GTA and Chatham-Kent markets. The Ridge landfill recently received approval for an expansion that could see its annual fill rate upped from just over 200,000 to 680,000 tonnes.
The Competition Bureau asserts that if CWS is allowed to keep the Ridge Landfill, they will have cornered 68% of the projected landfill capacity in southern Ontario. Once it acquires the Adams Mine landfill, they could increase their lion's share to 77%.
When CWS picked off the Ridge it left BFI with only sites in Michigan to offer the City of Toronto, which meant transportation costs 33-43% higher than it would be to the Ridge.
"The elimination of the Ridge from the City of Toronto's bidding process effectively reduces the City of Toronto's options to two. One option is to send most or all of the waste to sites in Michigan. The other option is to accept the CWS/Rail Cycle North proposal .... Due to uncertainties involved in transporting waste to Michigan, the City's only viable option may be to accept the CWS/Rail Cycle North proposal using the Adams Mine. This is likely to result in higher disposal costs for the city of Toronto ....." (Competition Tribunal, April 2000)

All of this could mean that TO will be at the mercy of the waste giant once the deal is signed. What it means for the residents of Temiskaming, however, is much more significant. Once Toronto signs the deal, the City Fathers won't have to worry about liability problems at the potentially leaky and waterlogged dump. That problem will fall to WMI through its Canadian subsidiary.
Northern residents will have to trust that this Houston giant will be willing to keep its Canadian subsidiary around to pay the ongoing costs of a site for centuries into the future, even though it will have stopped making them money after the first twenty years.

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