Mirabel | Waste illegally buried behind the ecocenter

After years of illegally burying waste on agricultural land behind his sorting center, the manager of an ecocenter in Mirabel is now forced to remove everything. The Commission for the Protection of Agricultural Land (CPTAQ) also suspects the “potential presence of asbestos” buried elsewhere on the site.

After months of investigation, the CPTAQ has just confirmed that Laval businessman Joé Miller – with his companies including Sterling Recycling Service – buried a large volume of residual materials on agricultural land that belongs to him. This is located behind the ecocenter that he manages in Mirabel, in the Saint-Canut sector.

In an order served to Mr. Miller and his companies on Wednesday, the CPTAQ demands that “the entire backfill” – made up of waste and residue from its sorting centers – be removed, “until the damage to undisturbed natural soil.

The Commission considers that the owner abused authorizations previously granted for non-agricultural activities in order to “get rid of non-recoverable materials from [des] sorting center activities”.

Remember that in Quebec, backfilling in agricultural areas must be done with good quality soil and with the green light from the authorities.

It was last spring, following inspections, that the CPTAQ brought out the heavy artillery. It required the construction of ten four-meter trenches on the agricultural land behind the ecocenter, an exceptional measure.

During the execution of the work, the owner Joé Miller was reluctant to dig so deep, it is reported. “Had it not been for the insistence” of the CPTAQ agronomist, the Commission would not have been able to discover “the successive layers” of residues that were there, i.e. construction materials as well as “fine residual materials and crumbly to which are added various debris and a smell of sulfur (of rotten eggs),” we read.

Asbestos fear

The visits by CPTAQ inspectors also made it possible to confirm the burial of waste in another part of the agricultural land, at the other end, where a maple grove adjacent to a wetland was cut down without authorization.

The CPTAQ recently required the company to dig three trenches to be able to characterize the material buried there. The work must be carried out with “adequate protective equipment […] due to allegations of potential presence of asbestos in the ground. Joé Miller did not respond to this request.

The CPTAQ is not the only authority to have opened an investigation following revelations made by the daily Dutyin June 2023, in connection with the landfilling of residual materials. The Ministry of the Environment is also trying to shed light on the company’s activities.

Ministry inspections have so far confirmed the illegal burial of residues, but also the release of contaminants into the environment.

In its order, the CPTAQ claims that it does not know whether the buried materials contain contaminants likely to harm agriculture. The Commission requests that analyzes be carried out under the supervision of an agronomist.

In the absence of contaminants, Joé Miller and his companies will have to send the residue to technical landfills. If the material turns out to be contaminated, the waste must be treated before it is disposed of.

Welcomed

“We see it as a good thing that the CPTAQ is showing its teeth more,” says Marcel Denis, president of the Sainte-Scholastique–Mirabel division of the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA).

A similar story comes from the general director of the Quebec Common Front for Ecological Waste Management, Karel Ménard, who welcomes the decision of the guardian of arable land.

The order is more severe than the administrative monetary penalties from the Quebec Ministry of the Environment which cannot exceed $10,000, he indicates.

“Perhaps it would be up to the CPTAQ to intervene as soon as this type of activity takes place in an agricultural zone. It would send a clear message that you can’t just throw away anything. »