I have lived in Gormley my…

I have lived in Gormley my entire life and in the home I am currently in for 30 years. DMS installed and has been operating a shredder without an ECA since early 2020.

Large Explosions: In February 2020 we heard large explosions that shook our house. They went on from time to time until mid-May 2020. These explosions came from DMS when a BBQ gas bottle or gas tank went through the shredder.

Excessive Noise: The excessive noise heard inside and outside of our home comes from the shredder grinding steel and from the cranes loading the steel and dropping it into the shredder. Many in the community, including us, contacted the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville to complain. The town would not commit to dealing with the excessive noise. The daily and continual sound is loud crashing banging steel as the cranes drop the scrap into the shredder. Than the shredder grinds away and the sound is like a 747 over top of your house all day long. It is excessive and can be heard both inside and outside. The sound outside is unbearable and the sound inside is extremely irritating and disturbing. Most days it is impossible to concentrate on work and hold conference calls or zoom calls. It is impossible to sit outside while DMS is operating.

MECP Duty Office Line: In early May 2020 I contacted MECP with the complaint and was told to call the Duty Office line each day there was excessive noise. I have done so each and every day that shredder runs since mid-May. They should all be on record with the York Region Duty Office. I would estimate I called 16-18 times a month for the last 7 months.

Shredder and Crane Operating Schedule: The Shredder and the cranes loading the shredder run from about 6:00 am until 4:30 pm 6 days a week. The only days they don't run is on Sunday. I noticed that in the application DMS states that they only run Monday through Friday. That is not a true representation. They infact operate on Saturday’s from early in the am to mid-day. It is very disruptive to wake up each day to excessive noise. I have also been forced to relocate my home office in my house because it is unbearable to be on the north side of the house during the day while the shredder and cranes are operating. It is disruptive to my work from home situation which will continue for another year.

Canada Day Excessive Noise: They even ran on Canada Day and I was advised by the MECP spill action line to contact York Region Police. They sent a car out to shut the machine down. After the police car left the shredder started up again. The police incident number is 20-199013.
Smoke: Many days you can see smoke from the Shredder and it in fact does leave the property line. I did send a complaint and picture to the York Durham Office on multiple occasions. The smoke could be seen leaving DMS, across Woodbine Ave. and extending over the hamlet of Gormley and across farmer’s fields.

The Community around DMS: DMS in their application also indicated that there are no residences in the vicinity. There are in fact approximately 30 homes and multiple businesses close by. There are at least 7 homes directly across the street from the main entrance of DMS on Woodbine Ave, and there are another 8 on the same side of the street. Not to mention the historical hamlet of Gormley nearby and within earshot of the excessive noise. There is a daycare, multiple homes and businesses exposed to excessive air pollutants – noise, smoke, odors. There are also thousands of acres of farmer’s fields growing vegetables for supermarkets. After the fire in September 2020 our homes and the farmer’s fields were covered in black oily soot.

Adjacent Land Uses: Also in the application DMS was asked to complete adjacent land uses. In their application they stated no residential, no industrial and no commercial. That is not a true representation of the community of Gormley.

Increased Truck Traffic: Since the arrival of the shredder there has been a tenfold increase in the amount of truck traffic and noise through Gormley. These are large 40 ton tractor trailers hauling scrap steel. They start at 5:30 am and often sit idling on Woodbine Ave at DMS entrance until they can enter at 6:00am. Very disruptive to the community.

Greenbelt: DMS also neglected to complete the section regarding their municipal zoning approvals. And they also stated that the current zoning permits the proposed activity. The legal non-conforming scrap yard permissions did not encompass the entirety of the property which is now used to stock pile scrap steel. Over the last few months they have continued to stock pile scrap all across the greenbelt and are closer to Berczy Creek than allowed. They have metal within 25m of the creek and any activity within 120m of a creek requires a permit from MNRF or MECP. You can see from the 2 pictures I took on Nov 13 that the scrap is piled 4 to 5 stories high and all across the green belt and encroaching on Berczy creek. The large shredder with the smoke coming out of it does sit just as the edge of the legal non-conforming zone. You can see an overhead view on DMS Apple Map from 2020. The situation on the green belt has become much worse over the last few months than this overhead view indicates. The green belt is covered in piles scrap steel, a place for storage and transfer of rebar and a large section storing car. This is not incompliance with the Oak Ridges Moraine Act and the Greenbelt legislation.

Fire September 2020 and Endangered Species: In August DMS piled berms of scrap steel around the shredder to mitigate the noise. That was the scrap that caught on fire in September 2020. The berms did nothing to mitigate the noise. The fire raged for 15 hours and it took three municipalities to put out the fire. They used 1.9 million litres of water, reported by the Town, which flowed into the Berczy Creek and killed all the fish, invertibrates and polluted the water. Berczy Creek flows into the Rouge Valley system and feeds our local wells. Gormley is not a serviced area. I have also included pictures of the dead fish in Berczy creek after the fire. MECP Endangered Species branch is aware of this situation and confirmed that Berczy Creek was a redside dace habitat. The day after the fire, DMS operated as normal and shredded that burnt smelly steel continuing to pollute the community.

MECP Legislation: MECPs own legislations states that a Shredder cannot be operated without an ECA. We have brought this to the attention of MECP multiple times, moths before DMS ever completed and submitted an application.
FROM MECP LEGISLATION: Shredding Equipment - The use, operation, construction, alteration, extension or replacement of a shredder that is used or operated to shred metal at an ELV waste disposal site is not a prescribed activity. If a shredder is used or operated to shred metal on site, the air activities in relation to the shredder may not be registered in the EASR. Instead, the shredder would be subject to the requirement to obtain an environmental compliance approval before it may be operated onsite. However, this does not negate the requirement to register the waste activities that meet the waste criteria in the EASR.
MECP legislation. https://www.ontario.ca/page/end-life-vehicle-waste-disposal-site-user-g…

Suspend DMS Application: Given the above information I find it hard to believe that MECP continues to process an ECA for DMS. I would expect that MECP would inform DMS that the application for an ECA is suspended and according to MECP legislation they should stop operating the shredder. MECP is responsible for the Environmental Protection Act, the Greenbelt Act and Oak Ridges Moraine Act and they should force DMC to clean up the greenbelt and provide a plan of how the shredder will operate, how they will control fires, etc. prior to MECP moving forward with the application. And the plan should indicate how DMS will continue to operate within their legal non-conforming industrial zones only, and not on the greenbelt.

If the ECA is approved by MECP: Please ensure, at the very least, that the shredder and the cranes loading the shredder are housed in a building to mitigate the noise, smoke and control all other air pollutants. And that the machine stops operating until such time that the noise and other air pollutants are controlled. Gormley has been subject to uncontrolled air pollutants coming from DMS for almost a year and I find that unacceptable. The approval should also ensure that the greenbelt is restored to its original state. That DMS will operate within its approved industrial zones only. That DMS will protect Berczy Creek from all run off and pollutants. That DMS will not encroach on the creek. That DMS will only operate on weekdays, not weekends and that DMS will not operate on holidays. That DMS will operate within certain hours.