| Dec 04, 2013


A case of illegal dumping on the edge of the Trans-Canada Trail outside of Sharbot Lake has revealed that the ownership of the trail is still in doubt.

The owners of the adjacent private property have gone to both Central Frontenac Township and the Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance seeking to have the material removed, but they have had no success.

“I am concerned that more and more material will be dumped here because it is a convenient spot for dumping and it is looking more and more like a dump,” said Julie MacDonald, who owns property on both sides of the trail with her husband Josh Middleton.

The trail can be accessed by a pickup truck or a car and is located out of sight of any roadway, making it a good candidate for illegal dumping.

Just off the edge of the trail, on a downhill slope that ends in the Middleton/MacDonald owned wetland that runs directly into Sharbot Lake, a quantity of old boards, some of them pressure treated, as well as a couch and some other furniture, are strewn about. In addition, there is brush spread out on both sides of the trail, the product of persistent illegal dumping, according to Julie MacDonald.

She has been trying, for two years, to get the mess cleaned up, without success.

“I have talked to both the township and the Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance many, many times, and this spring the Trails Alliance said they were going to clean it all up, but that never happened. And now the township can’t decide whether they own the trail or not,” she said.

Kyle Labbett, the waste management co-ordinator for Central Frontenac, has been to the property and said that is clear that the material has been illegally dumped.

“We are still trying to find out if we actually own the trail. I haven’t been able to determine, and neither has our CAO Larry Donaldson, if the ownership of the trail property has actually been transferred to the township,” said Labbett, “and it is our policy not to remove illegally dumped material from private property, so there is nothing we can do about it at this time.”

Labbett added that, although the ownership is in some doubt, an agreement is in place between the township and the Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance to manage the Trans-Canada Trail in Central Frontenac, and Labbett said that the Trails Alliance has made an offer to do some cleanup.

“Last month Kyle Labbett did tell me that the Trails Alliance was willing to pay $500 towards a clean-up, which is a lot less than they originally said they would do. It is enough to clean up the lumber, but not everything else, and after two years of waiting that’s not nearly enough.”

This leaves her the option of reporting the matter to the OPP, but even if the OPP did launch an investigation it would be hard to prove who did the dumping.

In the meantime the snow has covered up the material and it is unlikely anything can be done until the spring.

“My concern is that people will just continue dumping, damaging my property and causing runoff into the lake,” said Julie MacDonald, “and I feel I’m only getting the run-around from the township and the trails alliance.”

She said that the problem has continued to escalate in the two years since she first reported it to the township, which coincides with the township starting to accept brush at only one of their waste sites, the one at Elbow Lake south of Parham. She also worries that the increase in dumping fees for commercial loads that is coming on stream in January will make the situation worse.

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