Councillors look at pursuing court order to close stinky GFL landfill in Stoney Creek
CBC
Hamilton city councillors passed two motions this week to take steps to close the Stoney Creek landfill that has been connected to a foul, invasive smell in the community since 2023.
At a General Issues Committee (GIC) meeting on Wednesday, Ward 9 councillor Brad Clark moved a motion to ask the province to expedite the closure of the dump and another to seek a court order to have the GFL facility closed temporarily.
“When we talk about these odours, it’s not simply a bad air day,” Clark said on Wednesday.
“These odours are pervasive, these odours seep into their homes … and it is a persistent issue.”
Since at least April of 2023, residents of Upper Stoney Creek have been dealing with a recurring, at times overwhelming smell that neighbours have described as an odour of rotten eggs, cat urine and chemicals.
GFL has blamed a leachate pond as the culprit for the smell. Leachate is a potentially toxic liquid that forms when rain percolates through the landfill.
Since then, however, Clark said he’s not convinced that’s the only reason for it.
“When the leachate pond was emptied and cleaned, ironically the odours were still there,” he told council. “Could it be that it’s the waste? I argue it is.”
The company also said in 2023 the smells could have started when they dug into old, smelly waste.
A group of around two dozen neighbours protested outside of City Hall before the GIC meeting this week, holding signs and chanting “shut down GFL.”
Clark said at the meeting that the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) went from getting one odour complaint in 2021 and none in 2022 to getting 1,109 in 2023, 939 in 2024 and 1,551 so far in 2025 in connection with the landfill.
One of Clark’s motions will have council ask Premier Doug Ford to direct the MECP “to begin the process to expedite the closure” of the dump.
His second motion, which he said he crafted with the help of the city’s solicitor, is to seek a court order to have the landfill closed for up to two years “or until the court is satisfied that the ongoing public nuisance has been fully abated.”
He said the latter would be a first for the city.
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