The Town of The Blue Mountains faces big costs to potentially remediate a former landfill site located in Thornbury.
At council’s committee of the whole meeting on Jan. 31, staff delivered a report about the state of the 4.9-acre former landfill site in Thornbury located at King and Lansdowne Streets. In 2022, staff and consultants conducted an environmental site assessment of the property in response to an inquiry about the town possibly selling the property.
The study, which cost just under $75,000 found that about 600 truckloads (approximately one year’s worth of garbage) was buried at the site. Staff estimate the property was used as a landfill from 1953 to 1969. The study included water, soil and gas monitoring and identified a number of potential issues with the property with full details available in the presentation here.
The town currently uses the property for snow storage in the winter months, as well as for storage of boat trailers and cribs and snow plows.
The preliminary report suggested it would be possible to remediate the site and council voted in favour of staff proceeding with more detailed testing and monitoring with an eye towards the eventual development of a full plan to fix the property.
“It’s very feasible to remediate this site,” said Jeffrey Fletcher, manager of sustainability and solid waste.
The report estimated the additional studies needed would cost $105,000. Staff suggested there were three eventualities the town could pursue with the property: full remediation, leaving it in its current condition, but taking steps to mitigate the risks to the town, or selling the property.
Fletcher said an “as is” sale of the property would likely have conditions that would see the town responsible for any clean up of the property should issues arise post-sale.
Members of council approved the staff request and were clearly thinking about the future uses of the property should the decision be made to remediate the site.
Coun. Paula Hope said she was leaning towards cleaning up the property and then making a decision on what to do with the land.
“It’s such a wonderful location,” she said, raising the possibility of the property eventually becoming a recreational facility with tennis and pickleball courts.
