Item - 2011.PW3.4

The Public Works and Infrastructure Committee recommends that:

1.         City Council approve the recommendations contained in the Biosolids Master Plan with respect to the Highland Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, namely the On-site Thermal Reduction of biosolids by replacing existing multiple hearth incinerators with new modern Fluidized Bed incinerators with state of the art scrubbing technology. An additional incinerator is planned to provide the contingency necessary to ensure reliable biosolids management capacity.

2.         Subject to the adoption of Recommendation 1 above, City Council direct that the necessary adjustments to Toronto Water's Council Approved 10-Year Capital Plan be considered during the 2012 Capital Budget process, to allow the completion of the first Fluidized Bed incinerator by 2015 and the second by no later than 2020.”

3.         Subject to adoption of Recommendations 1 and 2 above, City Council authorize the General Manager of Toronto Water to include enhanced emission scrubbing technologies as part of the construction project allowing the City to set, for this facility, voluntary emissions standards that are significantly more stringent than the existing regulatory standards.

4.         City Council receive, for information, the report and Confidential Attachment 1 (April 7, 2011) from the City Solicitor.

5.         City Council direct that the confidential information contained in Confidential Attachment 1 to the report (April 7, 2011) from the City Solicitor remain confidential as it is subject to solicitor-client privilege.

The 2009 Biosolids Master Plan Update considered several options to manage biosolids at Toronto’s four sewage treatment plants and identified fluidized bed incineration as the preferred option for the Highland Creek Treatment Plant.  At its meeting of June 8, 2010 City Council approved the beneficial use of biosolids as the primary biosolids management strategy for the Highland Creek Treatment Plant with the landfill disposal as a contingency option.

Toronto Public Health has undertaken a rapid health impact assessment of biosolids management options at the Highland Creek Treatment Plant to provide the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee with a summary of the potential health impacts of various biosolids management options.

The most important and quantifiable health impact of biosolids management is through air quality. All of the options considered will reduce the release of air pollutants during operations compared to the current situation. Since the air quality in Toronto is still contributing to illness, from a health point of view, the option that has the lowest release of air pollutants is preferred.  Beneficial use options are likely to have the lowest impact on air quality, including releases of greenhouse gasses. Additional pollution control measures proposed for use with the incineration option may reduce the difference in air quality impacts between incineration and beneficial use.

Beneficial use options could have greater negative impacts on quality of community life factors (for example, noise, traffic, and odours) than incineration. The health impact of quality of community life factors are difficult to access and quantify.