Soil Excavation

By Danielle Rodo

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/tainted-soil-lands-on-pickering-farm/article2343647/

Who thought soil could be such a dirty business? For many excavation companies it is hard to find places to dump contaminated soil. Also, along with those complications, it costs a lot to dump soil, which changes with the percentage of contamination. This Article is about a man named Gord Hamilton, who just wanted to make a level spot for his wife to park her bus. A company called Earthworx Industries contacted him, offering $8500 to dump and grade about 500 truckloads of soil on his land. Mr. Hamilton jumped at the opportunity because many of his neighbours have been offered some similar chances. After the company was finished, a neighbour walked by and notices a rotten smell coming from Mr. Hamilton’s land. Gord got his soil tested and the results were that it was indeed contaminated with Gasoline. After many calls and much work he got in touch with the CEO (Of Earthworx) Patrick Dovigi, which agreed to take the soil away.

The four System Conditions of the Natural Step comes to mind when I think about this article because we need to eliminate our contribution to the physical degradation and destruction of nature. We must stop digging up soil and leaving massive scars in the earth. Also then thinking that we can use to put contaminated soil just hurts us in the long run. We need to find a new process with dealing with contaminated dirt. It also says in the article that a 6.3 million tonne site has only an 8-10 year capacity, and with the rate we are going we will soon have no more room. Companies need to stop and think about how they can make this industry sustainable.