Gravenhurst group celebrates win after announcement soil-treatment plant won’t be built in neighbourhood

According to a text, Bhagat — the spokesperson for a Winhara group opposed to the plant — received on April 29 from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, Terranevo Soil Resources LP, the company proposing the plant, withdrew its application and the ministry has closed the file.

“This afternoon we received confirmation from Drew Brennan of the ministry of environment that the proposal for the contaminated soil treatment plant has officially been withdrawn. We appreciate all of the residents of our community who supported us. It was a long seven weeks since we first learned of this proposal, but we are thrilled with this outcome and appreciate how quickly our community came together,” said Bhagat.

Martin Zimmer, a consultant who worked with Terranevo Soil Resources LP on the environmental compliance approval process, confirmed in an email on April 30 the soil-washing project is not moving forward at that site.

“Terranevo had given consideration to the residents’ concerns. It wants to establish a soil storage and soil washing facility at a location that has the community’s trust … to this end, Terranevo will be looking to set up at a different (Ontario) location,” he said.

On Dec. 23, 2023, Terranevo Soil applied to the ministry for a new waste environmental compliance approval to receive, store and process excess soil through a soil-washing plant.

This proposed use of the site would be to store soil material, process soil material through a soil-washing plant for blending with pit sands and transfer nonhazardous contaminated soil-washing residue to approved soil-treatment facilities.

Bhagat and her neighbours were worried about the plant’s proposed location being so close to their homes, with possible issues such as environmental impacts, increased truck traffic and the impact on area property values among their concerns.

They started a Facebook group with more than 350 members, who also expressed their concerns about the plant’s location.

“It was a full-time job researching and meeting with various officials for a lot of our members,” said Bhagat. “It’s truly astonishing the great things that can be accomplished when the community gets together. We thank all of our supporters especially (MPP) Graydon Smith’s office, staff at the Ministry of Environment and the local MNRF representative who all took the time to listen to our long list of serious concerns. We were glad that the company has decided not to pursue this application in our residential area.”