From: John Kaminski
Date: Fri Jan 3, 2003 6:15 pm
Subject: Fwd: OMAF's response to John Welwood's request for the NMP
To: "CC - Steering Committee":;
This is important - they don't want to release the Nutrient Management Plan to concerned citizens. Kincardine may not get our requested "public disclosure" clause through the system.
John Kaminski
CC of Kincardine
From: John Welwood
....I thought I would inform you I have received responses from OMAF and the Township with regard to my request for the NMP documentation. I've included OMAF's reply, followed by a copy of my letter to Helen Johns from November. As you can see, they are continuing to fudge. They obviously support Geene's operation. I will wait until I have a chance to talk to you before I respond. The Township simply acknowledged receiving my request of the Municipal Freedom of Information Request dated November 28th. They say my request may affect the interests of a third party. ( I assume they mean Geene.) It goes on to say:
"The third party is being given an opportunity to make representations concerning disclosure of the records. A decision on whether the records will be disclosed will be made by January 27th, 2003 in accordance with Section 21 of the Act a copy which is enclosed."I didn't bother to copy you the enclosed portion of the act. It is obvious the Township and OMAF are not going to cooperate with us. I await your advise on what further options we may have left.
December 20, 2002
Dear Mr. Welwood,
The Honourable Helen Johns, Minister of Agriculture and Food, has asked me to respond to your letter of November 12, 2002 about a proposed hog operation in Huron-Kinloss.
I understand that on October 8, 2002, the farmer received a building permit from the Township of Huron-Kinloss for a 3000 head feeder barn.
As you know, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food staff reviewed and approved the nutrient management plan for this proposed operation. However, nutrient management plans are not public documents. You may wish to make a request for access to the plan under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPPA), which requires government organizations to protect the privacy of an individual 's personal information and gives individuals the right to request access to government information. If a formal request is made under the FOIPPA, a five dollar fee must accompany the request. Additional information about FOIPPA is available at the Information and Privacy Commisioner's web site at www.ipc.on.ca.
As indicated in previous correspondence, the Nutrient Management Act will enhance the protection of Ontario's water resources by minimizing the effects of agricultural practices on the environment, especially as they relate to land-applied materials containing nutrients. Under the act, the province will develop standards that will supercede municipal by-laws addressing the same subject matter.
Minister Johns, along with other elected representatives and senior government officials, is leading several consultation meetings on stage two regulations. For dates and locations, please call the Agricultural Information Contact Centre toll free at 1-877-424-1300.
Stage one consutations are now complete. The comments we received from farmers, environmentalists, municipalities and others were instrumental in making key improvements to the regulations. Consultations on the second round of regulations under the Nutrient Management Act were launched on December 2, 2002. I look forward to additional thoughtful input.
Stage two regulations address such topics as the construction and siting of the barns and manure storages, land application, local advisory committees, feedlot operations, setback distances for applying nutrients around surface water and other sensitive features, quality standards for land-applied nutrients, and restrictions for spreading nutirents on snow-covered or saturated land.
Stage three will include regulations dealing with livestock accesss to waterways, manure haulage and transfer, and dead animal and washwater management.
For each stage, the draft regulations will be posted on the ministry's web site at http://www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/agops/index.html and on the Environmental Bill of Rights information registry for 60 days at http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/env reg/er/registry.htm. Written submissions on stage two regulations may be made until January 31, 2003.
Thank you for sharing your views with the ministry on this important matter.
Yours very truly,
Frank Ingratta
Deputy Minister
November 12, 2002
John Welwood
Coalition of Concerned Citizens of Huron-Kinloss
56 Vozka Drive
R.R.# 1 Kincardine, ON, N2Z 2X3
The Honourable Helen-Johns
Minister of Agriculture for Ontario
Ministry of Agriculture and Food
77 Grenville Street, 11th Floor
Toronto, ON M5S 1B3
Dear Minister Johns,
I am writing on behalf of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens to request that you allow a small committee of Coalition members to have access to the latest approved version of the Geene Nutrient Management Plan and related documentation ( building plans, independent third party review of the NMP ( a municipal by law requirement), as well as the results of the environmental assessment we were told Mr. Geene had to complete as part of the process to get his latest building permit.
Based on our previous experience with Mr. Geene's flawed Nutrient Management Plans, we feel we have good reason to be concerned about his latest approved plan. ( If you have read our legal factum, you will be familiar with the many deficiencies in his earlier NMPs. ) Please do not construe this request as an attempt to make Mr. Geene's life more difficult. We simply want to know if this latest approved building permit and NMP addresses our original concerns. There must be an aspect of public scrutiny in the Nutrient Management Plan/ building permit process, otherwise, many citizens will conclude the system is rigged in favour of the operator at the expense of the environment and other stakeholders.
Unfortunately, our Township has not shared new information with the Coalition. The Huron-Kinloss Clerk informed me that the NMP and related documentation is confidential and protected under the Privacy Act. I respectfully suggest that this will only contribute to the perception that the process is closed, rigged in favour of the operator and, worse, corrupt.
The Coalition's concerns have not changed. The Geene lands are located within the immediate Eighteen Mile River, Boyd Creek and Clark Creek watersheds. The quality of water in these watersheds may be adversely impacted in the short-term by surface runoff, accelerated by discharge from tile drains. The Geene farm lands contain tile drains and these drains may discharge to nearby surface water sources. The spreading of large quantities of liquid manure, accelerated by discharge from field tile drains, will likely cause an adverse impact on the water quality in nearby watercourses.
This was the conclusion of the many expert witness reports and affidavits in the Coalition's legal factum. It was the opinion of Conestoga Rovers and Associates (CRA), a highly respected, international engineering firm, that the continued application of liquid manure over the contiguous Geene farmlands at the proposed rates poses a potential adverse effect to the quality of the down gradient watershed system including Amberley Beach. The affidavit of Stanley Denhoed, a professional engineer specializing in groundwater and surface water issues concluded that Mr. Geene's earlier operation proposal ( The original 6000 feeder hog plan was approved by your Ministry. It was later disapproved due to the many flaws that the Coalition brought to OMAF's attention. The next version was for a 4000 hog operation based on a permit that did not follow all applicable law.) would cause environmental degradation of the streams and the Lake Huron shoreline in the vicinity.
Brian Luinstra, Ph.D. and hydrologist, employed by the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority, also completed testing and sampling for the Coalition. His testing established that the contaminated levels in the creeks and drain at issue here already exceed Provincial Water Quality Objectives and the Geene operation will lead to further contamination. Further, Mr. Luinstra's predecessor, Jack MacPherson, former senior hydrologist with the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority who gave evidence on behalf of the Coalition, made reference to three separate studies which demonstrate that manure applied to lands which have been tile drained can reach tile drain outfalls within 20 minutes of application. Mr. MacPherson also indicated that injection systems such as the kind Mr. Geene proposes to use, is liable to accelerate the timing of the manure entering the watercourse.
The Coalition of Concerned Citizens of Huron-Kinloss needs more than verbal assurances that Mr. Geene has had to go through a more rigorous process to get his latest building permit. Our past experience with his refusal to sit down and listen to our concerns: his actions and behaviours, have not thus far demonstrated good intentions. The Coalition has concerns that Mr. Geene plans to "two-step" the building process to find a way around the MDS II setback requirements. This involves "pretending" that there are really only going to be 3000 hogs, and then applying for an "expansion" of the operation shortly thereafter, the effect of which is to allow construction much closer to residential areas that would otherwise be permitted. Can you give the Coalition assurances that Mr. Geene won't be allowed to use the "two-step" loophole to get his 6000 hogs?
Please give serious consideration to the Coalition's request. Surely you must realize that large numbers of your Lake Huron constituents are seriously concerned about the potential adverse environmental and health effects that large factory hog farms, such as Mr. Geene proposes to build, will have on the Lake Huron watershed. Allowing a small committee of Coalition of Concerned Citizens of Huron-Kinloss to openly scrutinize the documentation (NMP, environmental assessment, independent third party review results etc. ) and to examine the steps that Mr. Geene had to complete in order to get his latest building permit for his hog operation, will minimize the perception that OMAF supports the growth of large hog factory operations over the environmental and health concerns of the vast majority of Ontario's informed citizens.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours truly,
John Welwood
Spokesperson for the Coalition of Concerned Citizens of Huron-Kinloss