SIX NATIONS — On Monday morning, dump trucks transporting soil to a location on First Line Road were stopped by Six Nations Police. Allegedly, the trucks had been dumping soil from the GTA area, as part of an agreement made between an individual that holds title to the land at the First Line address. However,

SIX NATIONS — On Monday morning, dump trucks transporting soil to a location on First Line Road were stopped by Six Nations Police.

Allegedly, the trucks had been dumping soil from the GTA area, as part of an agreement made between an individual that holds title to the land at the First Line address.

However, a local resident recovered a sample, saying that the soil itself smelled like a “petroleum product” and called into Six Nations Lands and Membership.

The resident found that the land has been under the name of a different individual that passed away in 1988. It was later noted that the land has thus been in dispute between two families since the ’60s, as both claim to have bought the land.

This means that dumping soil at the location and being paid to allow it is a situation that can grow to become even more of a dispute. But similar trucks that were stopped on Monday that were also carrying soil have been talking of the community.

On Tuesday, the Six Nations Community Bulletin Board Facebook page opened for discussion as a poster under the name of ‘A. I. Martin’ inquired about 15 trucks leaving Six Nations on Second Line.

“They were escorted off for trying to illegally dump again,” wrote a commenter under ‘Dan N Tanya Montour.’ “I sat at the corner and watched them go through too. I did see, about an hour later, four trucks parked at credit plaza. They probably had someone scramble around looking for somewhere else to dump because they didn’t wanna take it back Toronto area. I’m thankful for these interest groups who kick them off if we didn’t have them the rez’ would be full of Toronto area garbage, ugh.”

As commenters noted that clean fill would be great for certain terrains, others noted that ‘if it was clean they would be selling it in’ the GTA area that the soil comes from.

The province will introduce legislation to stiffen penalties for illegal soil dumping, says Donna Skelly, PC MPP for Flamborough-Glanbrook. That includes forcing developers to register how they’ll get rid of excess dirt, and doubling fines to $200,000 for environmental infractions.

In May of 2019, dirt dumping became a long-standing problem in rural Hamilton, and the city called for tougher provincial laws several years ago. The problem reaches Glanbrook, upper Stoney Creek and Ancaster — but especially Flamborough. Each are near and distant neighbours to Six Nations.

And the fills that come from GTA construction projects, including condo and road projects, often load soil that isn’t tested, so no one really knows what’s in it.

But still, contractors in the GTA have nowhere to put their mounds of dirt, so fill brokers approach and offer to get rid of it. These brokers then arrange trucks to take loads of it, then landowners are paid to take it.

Fill brokers can make upwards of $1 million a year.

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