A “key messages” guide that touts Site 41 as “superior to all other sites considered” shows Simcoe County still believes the site would make a good landfill, says a long-time anti-dump activist.

Stephen Ogden – who has sat as a member and as an alternate member of the Site 41 Community Monitoring Committee – is fighting for the release of specialized hydrogeological data, known as a calibrated ModFlow model. He has obtained an Information and Privacy Commissioner order to have the county release 20-years of groundwater flow data, although Simcoe County has refused, saying it does not own the information. The county has sought a judicial review of the IPC’s latest order to sue its consultant for the model.

Now he says he has proof the county has ulterior motives to keep the Certificate of Approval for Site 41.

As part of a $250,000 contract with Fleishman-Hillard International Communications –which helped Maple Leaf Meats through its tainted-meat scandal in 2008 – Simcoe County issued a media-relations guide. Released at a daylong seminar Dec. 15, half of the guide focuses on Site 41.

“It’s like a marketing tool the county has produced to show how great (Site 41) is, even though the county says they will never build a landfill site here,” he said, as he highlighted statements about how the Certificate of Approval and the zoning increase the value of the land in “County Council Key Messages.”

“It was like a gift from the sky,” he noted.

But the county’s environmental services director says the guide summarizes responses to the most-common questions he and his staff received from the public and the media.

“It’s just what it is. It’s the key messages, answer to questions people keep asking,” said Rob McCullough.

“It’s clarification for those who might speak to the public.”

Highlighted at last week’s CMC meeting, the document outlines on Site 41’s attributes as a landfill site, as well as the county’s plans to winterize the site and also proceed with a waste management strategy. It also comments that the county “made a positive decision in retaining the Certificate of Approval.”

In background for discussing Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop’s private members’ bill to stop the landfill site, the guide says retaining the C of A “is the only way to truly ensure the county’s direction is maintained.”

Ogden felt any “direction” was inappropriate, especially since the county has not yet concluded its waste management strategic plan.

“This is an inappropriate document and should have been sent to the CMC immediately. This is all about Site 41… There is a lot going on in the County of Simcoe, ongoing things that are part of a plan,” he said.

The guide supplements Site 41 background by saying, “The hydro-geological data amassed from the site over a 20-year period showed the site to be superior to all other sites considered for the North Simcoe area. No other site in North Simcoe matches the natural protective characteristics (of Site 41) to protect groundwater and the environment.”

The guide added, “The Certificate (of Approval) confirmed the sound science behind the landfill, deemed it to be environmentally responsible, and in partnership with zoning bylaws, it has the net effect of increasing the value of the land.”