Heather Wright/The Independent

Alex Ciccone wonders why the Ministry of the Environment isn’t holding WM’s “feet to the fire.”

Ciccone of Garrett Pickfield which heads up Warwick Township’s Technical Review Team asked the question Monday when he presented the final report on the operation of Twin Creeks Landfill in Watford.

Ciccone says while there are a number of issues which cause concern, the greatest are ground and surface water issues.

“Rain falls in the landfill, it collects contaminants. That’s called leachate, and you want to make sure that it doesn’t build up too high because if it does, it can break out of the landfill… and that can lead to contamination,” Ciccone said. “The way you deal with that is you pump out excess leachate.”

Every landfill, including Twin Creeks, have Environmental Compliance Approvals which sets limits for ground and surface water. In WM’s case, the limit is 30 centimetres.

“During the 2025 reporting year… almost all of the recordings, almost all the data for almost all of the sensors reported exceedances,” Ciccone said.

In fact, the technical review team found, it happened almost every day.

“That’s very significant…it’s a flagrant breach of the ministry’s requirements and WM’s responses, in my opinion, were not accountable and did not propose changes to address this.

“The change to address it is very straightforward. It’s not a complicated issue. You pump more leachate out. The reason I can assume WM doesn’t want to do this is because it’s very expensive to pump leachate out and have it treated off-site, but that’s not an excuse for breaching this section of the ECA.

Ciccone told council the report asks “why the ministry is not holding WM’s feet to the fire on following its own ECA.”

The environmental team is also worried about leachate in the old landfill.

“We’re asking that more leachate be removed, whereas WM is not committed to removing the same amount of leachate that we’re suggesting.”

Among the other issues that Ciccone flagged were the use of automobile shredder residue being used on site for landfill cover.

The township had success in the past in stopping the use of the shredded plastics, but Ciccone says it is being used again.

“(The shredded waste) sticks in tires when trucks are leaving the landfill, and that can go off site. And there’s a potential issue with contamination that our team thinks is a potential issue, and WM does not see as a potential issue.”

The township also wants the company to take better care of the landscaping around the site, noting trees that need to be replaced.

Ciccone says there are also a “significant number of air issues” at the landfill.

“We’re recommending continuous dust monitoring,” he said, noting they’ve been asking for dust monitoring for a decade. “WM is not required to do it, so they are not doing it. It will be assessed during the current (Environmental Assessment) process (for the landfill expansion project), but WM is not undertaking to look at that through this process.

“We think that’s a problem, but there’s no control to force them to require it.”

And Ciccone added, WM has yet to provide the financial information needed for an audit. The township has already instructed its lawyers to find a way to compel the company to provide the information to ensure it is receiving its fair share of revenue from the landfill.

Council approved the review without comment. It will be sent to the Ministry of the Environment. It will also be presented to citizens at the next Warwick Public Liaison Committee meeting.

Ciccone says as many members of the environmental review team will be on hand as possible to answer questions. The meeting date has not yet been set.