Huron County council is not pleased with how a case of illegal dumping was handled and it's letting the authorities know about it.
On Wednesday, council directed staff to send a letter to both the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP), after Huron East Mayor Bernie MacLellan reported concerns from the Recycling Board at a meeting last month.
MacLellan said in the August meeting that somebody dropped off hundreds of gallons of paint at the entrance of the Mid-Huron Landfill site in Central Huron.
A follow-up report by staff on the incident noted that OPP identified the company responsible, but no charges were laid. Instead, both the MECP and OPP followed up and "indicated the severity of the infraction to the company."
MacLellan was not pleased with that outcome, especially after he alleges the OPP said nothing would be done about it, because Central Huron didn't have a bylaw regulating illegal dumping.
"I've got a real problem with the fact that we didn't pressure the OPP to do something," he told council. "For two reasons, one, it was just plain wrong... And (two), it's still Huron County that is picking up the tab for disposing of the waste. Asking Central Huron to have to come up with a bylaw to say you can't be dumping hazardous waste on our doorstep without our permission, is wrong."
During discussions at Wednesday's meeting, Goderich Mayor Trevor Bazinet said this shouldn't be a matter that's left to bylaw.
"We all know that municipal bylaw only works certain hours of the day as well, so how do you enforce this if things are happening overnight or if there's no proof of this person dropping it off?" he said. "So you're just running down a rabbit hole at this point."
Council voted to accept the report from staff, as well as send letters to both the OPP and Ministry expressing its disappointment.