Courtesy of The Spec
By Kate McCulloughReporter
City councillors have voted to seek a judicial order to try to close the odour-plagued Stoney Creek dump — a legal first in Hamilton.
That rare legal pitch won’t happen fast, so councillors also voted Wednesday to ask the province to step in and “expedite” the closure of the GFL-run landfill.
Both motions from Upper Stoney Creek councillor Brad Clark were unanimously supported in a general issues committee meeting Wednesday that attracted more than a dozen landfill neighbours. Those votes are expected to be ratified at a council meeting next week.
The first motion would direct the city solicitor to bring an application to Superior Court to close the landfill for up to two years or “until the court is satisfied the ongoing public nuisance has been fully abated.”
“These odours are pervasive,” said Clark, who represents the Stoney Creek Mountain community. “These odours seep into their homes. Residents are buying air purifiers and putting them in every room to try to keep their house from smelling like a landfill.”
GFL did not immediately respond to Spectator requests for comment on the council vote Wednesday. But the company submitted a letter for the meeting emphasizing it expects major sources of odour to be fixed by the end of this year.
Asking the courts through the Municipal Act to close an operation if it is a public nuisance is “very rare,” Clark told The Spectator. One of the only instances in recent memory, he said, was a City of Newmarket legal application that resulted in a nine-month closure order issued to an organic recycling facility in 2006.
“It’s an unprecedented case in Hamilton,” Clark said.
The two motions account for the different timelines for each process, he said.
Pursuing court action involves gathering evidence and building a case, Clark said. City solicitor Lisa Shields said staff would bring a report to councillors outlining legal tactics and timelines in the first quarter of 2026.
“The other one is really advocating to the province saying, ‘We’ve had enough,’” Clark said. “‘It’s not going away. It’s time you expedite the closure process for the landfill.’”
Odours from the GFL-operated landfill — which have been compared to wet garbage, dead fish, cat pee and a “rotten egg smell” — have plagued neighbouring residents for several years.
There have been more than 3,600 complaints since 2023, about two years after GFL took over, Clark said.
The dump’s operator was charged in May with 10 provincial offences related to an infamous “summer of stink” in 2023.
In a letter to the committee, GFL vice-president David Richmond promised odour-mitigating steps should be largely finished by the end of 2025. That includes finishing the relocation of old waste — work ordered by the province — and the construction of a new, enclosed leachate treatment facility.
A pond for leachate — or garbage juice — was a major source of recent odour woes, he previously told residents in a community meeting.
Richmond said in his letter the company collaborated with the province and city to address infamous past odour woes in 2023. In a community survey that winter, more than 90 per cent of residents “noted significant improvement,” he wrote.
He also noted the landfill also contributes to the community via royalties, taxes and other agreements. The financial benefit in 2025 is expected to be about $4 million.
If the Stoney Creek facility is closed, waste-makers would be responsible for finding a new commercial landfill, said public works manager Jackie Kennedy.
“The waste from this landfill would not go to our municipal landfill,” she said.
Residents say years of odours have affected their physical and mental health.
“We are physically trapped in our home,” said delegate Tatyana Graham, who lives about 300 metres away from the dump. “It’s like a COVID lockdown all over again, except this time it’s the air outside that’s the threat.”
Burning eyes and throats, headaches, nausea, dizziness and difficulty sleeping are among the reported symptoms, she said.
“No amount of revenue is worth children gagging and coughing as they wait for their school bus,” she said.
The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board has also scrapped long-standing plans to build a new 650-student school on a board-owned lot at 399 First Rd. W. near the dump after the Ministry of Education directed them to do so, area residents learned in late September.
Kathleen Taylor, who lives less than a kilometre away, remembers waking up on an August 2023 night to a strong cat-pee stench.
“I woke up from a dead sleep gagging,” she said.
Taylor and Graham were among more than a dozen people in the gallery on Wednesday, many holding signs calling on officials to “close the dump.”
“I bought a townhouse but got an outhouse,” one sign read.
A small crowd cheered after the committee approved each motion.
Taylor she she’s “cautiously optimistic” about the future of the dump.
“It’s definitely a win,” she said.
Brad Clark Report 
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