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Apr. 7, 2006. 06:39 AM GAIL SWAINSON STAFF REPORTER The Toronto Star
The environment ministry has quietly approved a new Big Pipe sewer link along 19th Ave. in Richmond Hill that critics say violates the Oak Ridges Moraine Act.
"The act states you can't build a sewer through the moraine if there are other reasonable alternatives and there are," said Josh Matlow, with the environmental group Earthroots. "They cannot go ahead with this if they are going to follow the letter of the law."
The province, unannounced, gave the 19th Ave. interceptor, which will run between Leslie and Yonge Sts., the first of three certificates of approval last week.
This means the province has skirted its own ban on building on portions of the Oak Ridges Moraine, Matlow said.
"The government has shown it won't stand up for its own legislation and take a stand against the developers," Matlow added.
Ministry spokesman Mark Rabbior said yesterday the ministry is satisfied York Region's technical data made the case for the preferred Leslie St. route.
"We are satisfied they demonstrated a need for the project and there was no other reasonable alternative other than the route they chose," Rabbior said in an interview.
"We think any impacts to groundwater will be minimal and they will be able to mitigate them in some fashion."
Regional spokesman Patrick Casey called it "encouraging news," saying the region explored 10 routes before settling on the Leslie St. alternative.
"The level of scrutiny we have had on this project is pretty well unparalleled. It was even peer-reviewed," Casey said yesterday. "And at the end of all this, the province determined this was the route to take."
The region decided in 2004 to build the link along 19th Ave., which cuts across a protected natural linkage area on the moraine. But then-environment minister Leona Dombrowsky ordered the region to gather more supportive technical evidence to prove there was no "reasonable alternative" to that route, which is the hurdle the act requires.
Opponents say the $43 million, four-kilometre-long project will run across sensitive portions of the moraine, which legislation expressly forbids.
They had asked the region to route the sewer along Elgin Mills.
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