By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, December 20, 2013
Hamilton gets $23M from Ottawa for sewage treatment
Hamilton has been promised $23 million in federal money for a new facility to treat sewage sludge, but the city has no idea right now what that facility will be or what technology it will use to deal with the sludge.
Ottawa has promised the city up to $22.91 million to build a new waste treatment facility at the city’s Woodward Avenue treatment plant.
The facility would deal with “biosolids” — the roughly 100 tons of sewage the city creates every day. Currently, a treated version of the sludge is spread on local farm fields.
Putrified Organics Of Hamilton
It isn’t a sexy subject to talk about, said Dan McKinnon, the city’s director of water. But “this is really important.”
When combined with planned upgrades to the Woodward facility, “we’ve got plans in place now, and projects that are going to have a real legacy influence on the environment around Hamilton.”
David Sweet, MP for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale, announced the money at city hall on Wednesday. It comes from the P3 Canada Fund for public-private partnerships.
The city still doesn’t know what form the new facility will take. It could be for incineration, pyrolysis or another technology, McKinnon said. The city issued a preliminary call for interest last year and got 17 responses. It will put out a request for proposals next year.
Whatever operator the city chooses, the P3 money will pay for 25 per cent of the cost of building the facility. The city will pay for the other 75 per cent, plus the cost of operating the facility for the next 30 years. The maximum budget is around $111 million over 30 years, McKinnon said. (Source: CBC News)
REACTION
Letter to the Editor-in-Chief
Paul,
As a follow up to our telephone call last Friday, I’m writing to express concern on behalf of ArcelorMittal Dofasco regarding that day’s editorial page cartoon by Graham Mackay (Friday December 20, 2013).
As you know, the two trademarked tag lines “Our strength is people.” and “Our product is steel. Our strength is people.” have been in use by our company for decades (44 years to be exact). The Hamilton Spectator’s usage of the trademark and adaptation of the full tagline in this morning’s newspaper is offensive to ArcelorMittal Dofasco and we feel this use negatively impacts our company’s goodwill and integrity in the community. Without careful review of the entire page’s content, the cartoon’s text is a direct reference to ArcelorMittal Dofasco and its product. In fact, the cartoon has caused upset among some of our employees who feel the use of our longstanding tagline is inappropriate and offensive.
We trust ArcelorMittal Dofasco will not be represented in this way again in The Hamilton Spectator.
Marie
Marie Verdun| Manager, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs
ArcelorMittal Dofasco