A three hectare landfill site, situated north of the village of Fonthill and southwest of the City of Thorold (Ontario, Canada) on Rice Road, was closed down by the ministry in the late 1990s. The site is just north of highway 20 to allow accessibility to the dump. Easy accessibility was a social necessity because it allowed the Niagara region to bring their own waste to the site. The closed landfill site lies southeast of St. John's conservation area which is known for bird watching and nature education. The landfill is significant because the unnatural accumulation of waste has created negative environmental impacts on a local and a global scale. Humans have buried waste which now decomposing, periodically releases toxic greenhouse gases, such as methane, into the atmosphere which contributes to the quickening of global warming. The landfill site used to excessively leak ammonia, nitrogen and phosphorous into the soil which, consequently, contaminated groundwater and surface water. Regular testing was implemented after the landfill's closure in 2000. In 2004 the groundwater monitors were installed. The Wetland Treatment System (WTS) makes use of bulrushes and porous sand and gravel as the best solution to filter the water because the contaminating lifespan of the buried waste will last for decades. Maintenance of the Rice Road Landfill is necessary to reduce environmental impacts but this creates socio-economic impacts. The city of Thorold owns the closed landfill site and they have spent tax payers money on reducing the negative, human created, environmental impacts of the site. The WTS uses the natural filtering capacity of an engineered wetland to treat storm-water impacted by the old landfill before being discharged to the headwaters of Twelve Mile Creek. Over the last ten years, several tree saplings, which are a part of the wetland vegetation supporting the treatment process, have taken root. To prevent damage to the system, Carolinian Forest species such as Tulip, Black Walnut and Red Oak require social action to safely remove these species and put them to good use.

Municipality: St. Catharines

Local area name: Fonthill

Other identifying names or descriptions The site is on the outskirts Thorold

Latitude and longitude: 43°03'25"N 79°16'11"W

Physical dimensions:

Surface Area: 3 hectares

Elevation:

Highest / lowest point- 188m / 165m

This particular 2.8 hectares of waste within a licensed area of 3 hectares served the communities of Thorold, Pelham and Fonthill in the Niagara Region of southern Ontario from 1949 until it was closed in 1986. The site was developed in a deep ravine which was part of the headwaters of Twelve Mile Creek, which is the only cold-water fishery in the region. The east of the site is cultivated land and there is a dense biodiversity that is protected North of this site in the St. John's conservation area. There is also an inter-provincial natural gas pipeline that traverses the northern part of the site from east to west, beyond the fill area.

Map 1: An overview of Rice Road Landfill

Map 2: An aerial satellite image of Rice Road landfill indicating the pipe which runs across the North boundary of the site

When looking at the biota of this landscape, one must recognise that landscapes are defined by the observer. The modern day role of this landscape is to hide its history. When looking at the animal and plants species that grow and flourish in this landscape today, it is important to recognise that it is organised and adapted by humans and that without human influence, it would look very different. The material components of this landscape are made beneficial to humans; the wide open space which will allow for future recreational opportunities. This is an example of a forced relationship between organisms and their landscapes.

Landscapes have different purposes when looking from different perspectives. For the public, the land once had the purpose of holding their waste and today its purpose has shifted with the intention of becoming a landscape for recreational use. It no longer has a destructive soundscape and so could provide a relaxing leisurely location as it is situated away from the city. There are many Carolinian plant species on this site which provide opportunities; the squirrel, for example, eats the nuts but the trees take up a lot of space which can be a hindrance to the human species when planning development on the site. There is an ecological succession in all ecosystems; each plant interacts and contributes to a wider system. There are layers in the Carolinian forest and each layer has different uses for different species so that they form a biological community. These plants not only benefit the immediate interdependent species but these specific plants also contribute to the basis for life on earth. Humans depend on photosynthesis and so we need areas of forestry in order to survive.

Plant species

"Phragmites is a highly invasive plant species now common in North American wetlands and along roadsides. It out-competes our native wetland plants like cattails resulting in decreased habitat for wildlife. It thrives in disturbed habitats and prefers areas of standing water, but the roots can grow to extreme lengths, which allows the plant to survive in low water areas." (Opwg.ca, 2019) This means that the roots will clog up the waste treatment system at the site. Solar blankets are used to kill the roots. The roots of the Phragmites "produces toxins which impedes the growth of native plants, and can even kill them" (Opwg.ca, 2019). The removal of these roots is therefore in the best interest of native plants as the Phragmities spreads most commonly through equipment and construction. Although this plant seems like a troublesome weed, the definition of the word "weed" is very unstable. It has been labelled socially as an issue, but weeds are not real. It was by human intervention that the species was introduced to this area to out compete the native cattails. Similarly, it was declared that the native species' roots have become an issue and resulted in the removal of sugar maple trees. These are "large trees that can grow up to 35 metres tall and can live for more than 200 years. Its yellowish-green leaves are 8 to 20 centimetres long, and have five lobes. The shape of the leaf is well known — it's found on the Canadian flag and the sugar maple is the national tree of Canada. In the fall, the sugar maple's leaves turn yellow, brilliant orange or red" (Ontario.ca, 2014). This plant has a very evident cultural importance as a symbol of Canadian identity as well as being visually aesthetic with the colourful leaves to give it another human purpose-to look pretty. The Carolinian forest has species which are rare for Southern Ontario (Caroliniancanada.ca, 2004). There are very many social groups which are concerned with the protection and planting of regionally native species. The Sugar Maple and Tulip trees which were removed were taken to banks and greenhouses in Brantford for 2 or 3 years to harvest the saplings. The species from this cleared wetland are preserved to maintain the cultural values of the plants. "The tulip tree grows in only a few parts of Ontario: on the south shore of Lake Huron, the north shore of Lake Erie, and in the Niagara Peninsula. The tulip tree is a large, fast-growing tree, up to 35 metres tall with a trunk up to 160 centimetres in diameter. As its name suggests, the tulip tree produces beautiful yellow-green flowers that are about 5 centimetres long. The tulip-tree is one of two wild magnolia species found in Canada, and probably one of the most common `Carolinian Canada' symbols" (Ontario.ca, 2014). Other plant species found in this area include the Black Walnut and the Red Oak. The Black Walnut is a common species in the moist bottom-lands in southwestern Ontario. It has been frequently planted north and east of its range. It can live to be 150 years old. Size: Up to 30 m tall and prefers well-drained, rich soils. The roots release juglone, a substance that inhibits the growth of other plants. However, many native trees tolerate juglone well.The range of black walnut is moving north thanks to the planting efforts of people and forgetful squirrels. Black walnut is renowned for its strong, dark heartwood that is often used for high quality furniture and veneer (Ontario.ca, 2014). The red oak is usually 20 to 30 metres tall, with a thick trunk sometimes more than 120 centimetres in diameter, so it needs a lot of room to grow. Its leaves are dark green and are 10 to 20 centimetres long and it produces acorns. This is food for many of the animal species which reside on the site (Caroliniancanada.ca, 2004).

Wildlife and natural processes

Desirable species are usually from the mindset of a human and not from what best suits the animal species in that habitat. There are problems and conflicts and safety concerns with wildlife on this site. White tail deer are classified as Concentrate Selectors. From above, the head of a whitetail is sharply pointed to permit reaching into plants and selecting specific plant parts. Their tongue is long and slender, allowing them to extract succulent stems and leaves. A whitetail rumen holds about 2 gallons, and deer must replenish its contents every 3-4 hours in order to maintain a specialized rumen flora and fauna. The Whitetails scrape away biologically rich layers of the forest floor as they scratch for food (Kroll, 2019). The wild Turkey, like deer, cause understory disturbances just by their physical presence and their foraging. Specifically, they scrape away the thick, spongy layers of decomposing leaves or "litter" that hold moisture, recycle nutrients from fallen leaves and branches, and give seeds a soft place to take root (Spears, 2017). Due to the fencing of the area, there is not access to the site and the ability to determine the food chain that is operating here and the ratio of species.

Human intervention

The land is covered in grass because the vegetation provides a prevention to infiltration into the waste. This is further supported by a clay cap. The ravine should have been left untouched but due to the unregulated landfill site, human intervention was necessary. Waste was left exposed so that it did not meet environmental regulations. The coverage was therefore necessary but having a grassland creates its own problems. The maintenance and upkeep which is required for a grassland produces green waste which needs to be turned into productive composting otherwise it will just contribute to more unmanaged waste. It also requires people to come in and maintain the site which is increasing the Rice Road landfill's carbon footprint.

This site is surrounded by a productive ecosystem that will grow, die, fertilise itself and regrow. It constantly replenishes and nourishes itself. Although the forest looks as if it has not changed over time (see slideshow images below), the plants are constantly rotating on their own physical ecological process. The soils are soft, saturated, and organic, with a low bearing capacity. The site is now a green field with agricultural land to the east. The grass land is surrounded by forest and trails. It is in the transition of having a full recreational use and the site wants to hide the historical uses of the site. As mentioned previously, the maintenance of cutting the grass requires someone to drive to Rice Road, cut and dispose of the grass in a non-sustainable way. It would be much better to have a natural ecosystem and the have a forest area which does not need to be constantly preened and removed from the site. The surrounding land use also highlights the global issue of topsoil. The formation of this topsoil, is an incredibly slow process, taking typically 100 years for every inch of soil and formed from the weathering of rocks and the subsequent addition of organic material from decaying plants and animals. Topsoil is generally thought of as 'good quality soil'. Around the world there is a growing demand for this quality soil and even more so, flat land which can be worked on and developed agriculturally.

Over time

Rice Road landfill is in the Niagara region, and is a part of the escarpment, which was formed over millions of years, through the differential erosion by weather, and streams of rocks of different hardnesses. The Niagara Escarpment has a caprock of dolostone which is more resistant and overlies weaker, more easily eroded shale rocks. Through time, the soft rocks weather and erode away by the action of streams. The gradual removal of the soft rocks undercuts the resistant caprock, leaving it standing as a cliff - the escarpment. The erosional process is most readily seen at Niagara Falls, where the river has speeded the process. The Niagara Escarpment is not formed by faulting. There is no displacement of the rock layers at the escarpment, as shown by study or rock exposures and drillholes. Additional resistant rock layers make more than one escarpment in some places. Also, in some places thick glacial deposits conceal the Niagara Escarpment, such as north of Georgetown, but it continues underground and reappears farther north. To find out more about the Niagara escarpment and where to see formations look at http://www.giantsrib.ca/formation-of-the-escarpment/.

The Landfill (Gall and Monteith, 2012)

In an interview with Walker Environmental Group's Darren Fry, he revealed that the Group developed a clay cap and vegetative cover to prevent infiltration to the waste. The Group needed to ensure that nearby homes were protected from gas migration as there is a lot of sandy soil and the gas could transfer into the basements of nearby residents. Walker installed a perimeter system to see how far the impacts had reached. They could not collect the gas due to the small site but they blew air into the ground through wells. They made a curtain of high pressure to make a gradient to stop the gas from moving site. There was very little prior monitoring so the information was not readily available. The SubSurface Vertical Flow (SSF) wetland treatment system was sited at the bottom of the north slope of the landfill, within a valley that contained a seasonal creek. Developing the treatment system within this valley created several challenges. A work permit was required from the Ministry of Natural Resources and construction was only allowed between May 30 and September 1. The soft, saturated organic soils, with a low bearing capacity were another challenge. A geotechnical assessment was required to ensure these soils would support the system infrastructure, as well as to ensure that construction activities would not affect the steep side slopes of the ravine. An additional complication was that of having to cross the Enbridge Pipeline right-of-way. Construction required a crossing agreement for the transport of all equipment, materials and supplies across an active inter-provincial 24-inch crude oil pipeline and an inactive 18- inch pipeline. All necessary approvals and engineering were needed to ensure construction activities did not affect the pipelines. The staging of the entire construction effort had to be closely coordinated as site access was only available via the south end of the ravine. This, combined with the soft soil conditions, required the use of geosynthetics and temporary access road construction to allow heavy equipment to operate on the soft organic soils. A 90 m temporary access road underlain by a non-woven geotextile was constructed throughout the length of the ravine. Heavy equipment worked off the end of the road, and as construction progressed, the road was removed to make way for the SSF wetland treatment system. Specialized, six-wheel-drive articulated haul trucks were needed to transport excavated soils out of the valley and treatment media back in for use in the wetland cells. Following design and approvals, the SSF wetland was fully constructed within two months in late 2005 at a cost of $200,000, including design, approvals and construction. It was commissioned in February 2006 (Gall and Monteith, 2012).

The major hydrological feature of this landscape was that it used to form a part of the Twelve Mile Creek. More information on the twelve mile creek can be found at http://www.thedirtyhandsproject.com/pdf/12%20mile%20creek%20strategy2%20.pdf. The Twelve Mile Creek has many rehabilitation needs. Modification for improvement is required as present day activities limit the Twelve Mile Creek's natural capability to keep water and air clean. It is the only identified cold water stream in the Niagara Peninsula as well as being the only water system containing naturally reproducing Brook and Brown trout. It contains the only deep valleys and short hills landscape in the Region, in addition to containing rare sights of: an escarpment, a drowned river mouth, a warm tender fruit climate, a historic canal commerce areas and world class rowing facilities.

The built environment, has advanced and expanded into these landscape functions and have diminished some of the watershed's key functions. There is now unnatural erosion and murky headwaters since the 1980's (Sarvis 1985), increased water levels and temperatures (from vegetation removal and artificial dams), increased water nutrients (from land use runoff, septic systems, uncontrolled livestock creek access) [Phaneuf & Karimi 1997, Sarvis 1985, Hough et al 1982] and reduced cold water fish species (brook trout), plant and animal diversity. As a result, the strategy for a healthier watershed has recognised the land and stream interactions as having directly influenced the watershed's water quality and habitat for the cold water fish species, rare bird species, amphibians, reptiles and mammals. There are also natural changes in the Twelve Mile Creek over time as it evolves, and this resulted in the apparent disuse at the Rice Road site. This land had no economic value and so was chosen for a landfill site.The issues that water presented to Walker Environmental Group as they interacted with the site (Thedirtyhandsproject.com, 2000).

An interview with Darren Fry highlighted several hydrological impacts:

Groundwater

Walker Environmental identified the groundwater plume and its extended impacts. They discovered that the old site that leaching had already occurred. Leachate is mobilised by precipitation and surface water trickling through the landfill, by influxes of groundwater in hydrologically active areas, by rising water tables, and by liberation of water and other liquids contained in the garbage itself (18). Leachate generation continues in a cyclic pattern in operating landfills and in closed sites where precipitation or groundwater may enter the landfill cell. ll corresponds directly to net infiltration rates, modified by runoff and evapotranspiration patterns (Brown, 12). There has since been a declining trend in groundwater impacts due to the new treatment process. There are biological and chemical processes which work here as natural bugs break down the impacted plume (Fry, 2019). The creek groundwater discharge did not run into the surface water and into the rice road tributary, as was frequently assumed. Walker Environmental tried to ensure that there were minimised off-site impacts.

Surface water

The ravine was filled midway and there was a corrugated steel pipe which was subject to corrosion at the bottom. The pipe could not be plugged as ammonia levels are lethal to the fish. There is always a base flow and a rain event increases the water level. The wastewater treatment could not handle a heavy flow. When water exceeds the guidelines in a heavy rain event, the next area is required to manage the water. There is a 3:1 factor of safety to effectively manage overflows. Any more water than this then requires management and repairs to the system. Walker decided that using the wetlands would help to treat the water. They designed a system to manage the leachate affected stormwater. It is turned out to be both consistent and effective. The city built the system and it continues to work today and it was one of the first systems in Canada. The water it produces is clear and far cleaner than the natural water which runs into it.

Seasonal changes

We must imagine this location, not just as it is today at the very beginning of Autumn but also in the height of summer and the darkest winter periods. In regards to summer, mosquito habitat was a concern within the area. This impacted the type of wetland treatment system that could be implemented. , The Free-water surface system was not seen as desirable in this situation. By keeping flows sub-surface, odour concerns could also be eliminated. This system happily benefits the winter season too because keeping flows within a porous media offers a significant level of thermal insulation, this allows for continued operation during cold periods. The likely guarantee for the success of this system was based on very successful cold-climate research that had been undertaken in Norway. The sub-surface vertical flow wetland required a design which would reduce un-ionized ammonia and total phosphorus loading from leachate affected stormwater coming from the site. It was also determined that an SSF wetland should minimize or negate adverse cold weather impacts on biological activity and hydraulic efficacy. The wetland was designed and built so that gravity regulates flows, eliminating the need for pumps or blowers and allowing the wetland to operate with no fuel or electricity.

Continual maintenance

Since Twelve Mile Creek is a particularly sensitive waterway, stringent effluent objectives were set. Total phosphorus limits were set at 0.03 mg/L and un-ionized ammonia concentrations were not to exceed 0.02 mg/L for flows of 13 m3 /day. There are issues of increased water volumes also known as "flash flooding" and increased sedimentation of the St. Johns tributary. This can be linked to the increased fill at the Rice Road landfill and water retention techniques at the existing pit operation. If Rice Road Landfill is fully vegetated then it can increase transpiration equal to previous vegetation removed by headwater development. The function of water here is to flow under the ground, it comes out of the treatment process as clean in order to be beneficial to the cold water fishery. Keeping the water sub surface also limits the evaporation and the freezing of the water in winter.

The Archaeological influences on this site can be seen in the protection of the Carolinian species (please look at the section 'plant species' for specific details). The species that grow in the surrounding forest area were also in this area pre-European settlement. This continually influenced the landscape over time. The land use history after the arrival of European settlers, did not alter too much but the land was increasingly affected by the growing population as land to the east was developed for agriculture. The removal of surrounding riparian habitat would have decreased the area in which many animal species would have interacted and permanent homes would have been destroyed to clear for this land. Similarly, residences are coming ever closer to this site which is covering the land with bricks and cement to make impermeable surfaces and increase surface water runoff.

The Niagara region has competition for land use activities because it's one of the most fertile regions in Canada. Typically, land is used by the activity that generates the most profit- despite other activities being better suited to that place. This is why the historical fruit tree acreage of Niagara has rapidly declined as the land is used to grow grapes or is used for the increased demand for property and an urban lifestyle. On this Rice Road site, we have an example of the fallout of an increased residential area. With an increased population we have an input and therefore must expect an output. The multitude of waste must be dealt with and it was 'in fashion', so to speak, to use the landfill as a process of dealing with this waste in most countries across the world for decades. It has now become clear through scientific findings that incineration plants are more sustainable as the heat given off can be used for energy generation as well as this process having a more efficient use of space, eliminating groundwater contamination whilst lowering the carbon footprint. During the 1940s, when this landfill was built, there was less knowledge around sustainable waste management alternatives and so Rice Road was seen as a desirable location to dispose of waste.

This specific site does not have a wealth of resources as it is relatively small for a landfill site. However, this small landfill site contributes to the cumulative effects of all landfill sites across Canada, Northern America and the rest of the world. There has recently been a large push for education surrounding waste management, especially in regards to recycling. Recycling should be one of the last options. First humans should aim to reduce their waste, reuse where they can until it needs to be recycled. If materials can no longer be recycled or reused, then disposal is the final option. In Canada there is a cultural understanding which is developing more and more; it is in humankind's best interest to sustainably manage waste in order to avoid negative impacts on future generations and the immediate, current environment.

This landscape currently has no recreational use. There are, however, future hopes to establish a pedestrian and mountain bike trail at Rice Road Landfill, incorporating short hills, and linking to Short Hills Provincial Park. The land has a constructional purpose due to the crude oil pipeline. The people who need to perform construction work on the pipe wanted a construction staging area on site, which provides full value for the crew. The non-functioning old electricity masts are going to be removed in order to naturalise the trail.

Globally

International information exchange is being facilitated by a number of organizations and sources. The International Solid Wastes and Public Cleansing Association (ISWA) has the mandate of disseminating waste management information to member countries worldwide and has produced an international overview of solid waste management that summarizes waste management policy, technology, and practice in numerous countries (49). The same organization hosts regular international waste management conferences (see Ref. 50). Numerous technical and professional associations worldwide specialize in various facets of waste management, and a wide variety of publications and technical reports aimed at social, environmental, economic, technical, and legal aspects of solid waste management are available.

Nationally

Canadian Green Plan nonetheless acknowledges the value of the integrated approach; it has set a goal to reduce waste production 50% by the year 2000 and has introduced programs to control packaging wastes, expand the National Waste Exchange Program, provide funding for technological innovation and community-based waste reduction programs, and establish a national Office of Waste Management to coordinate federal programs under the National Waste Reduction Plan. Internationally, all the member countries of the ISWA have attempted to exchange expertise and embark on programs to streamline and improve domestic waste management practices. Progressive waste management legislation has begun to appear in many countries, and new approaches to the four R 's are being developed and explored worldwide.

Locally

Walker Environmental Group was a family owned company. It is based in Niagara and has strong community roots. Walker has a history in the quarry business, especially in limestone mining. They got into waste management in the early 80s. The ownership remained once the quarries were non-functional so that they then used these quarries as landfill sites. In 2001 Walker got into composting, landfill gas utilisation and controlling methane for odour concerns. On many of their sites they put their landfill gases to use and built a pipeline to fuel a paper mill. The company aims to recover resources and disposal is the last option.

The Group took up Rice Road landfill as a relatively small scale site compared to many of their other projects. The solution for this site required a life cycle cost analysis approach that accounted for all environmental, social and economic impacts and aspects associated with the required treatment objectives. This triple bottom line evaluation determined that an onsite wetland treatment system would meet the treatment objectives, minimise long-term operational and maintenance costs, and incorporate the natural characteristics associated with the surrounding riparian habitat. In 2005 Walker Environmental designed, obtained approvals, constructed and continues to operate, a constructed wetland treatment system at the Rice Road Landfill. This project has highlighted the use of natural systems such as wetlands, in the remediation of surface water issues. The WTS uses the natural filtering capacity of an engineered wetland to treat storm water impacted by the old landfill before being discharged to the headwaters of Twelve Mile Creek. The land is still owned by Thorold, but by allowing external experts to maintain the old landfill site, there are far fewer health risks. The has the potential to be woven back into the fabric of the community. With the township of Thorold owning the site, there were minor dangers to the surrounding properties because of the lack of prior monitoring. The site was purposefully built out of sight to avoid any human disturbance which ultimately resulted in disturbance of habitat for many other species in the ravine's ecosystem. Living next to a good potential recreational space is a benefit now that the land's past use as a landfill is hidden. The maintenance of this closed down landfill site is funded by the taxpayers money. Due to positive results, Walker can scale back monitoring to save costs as there are fewer harmful impacts coming from the Rice Road site. The increased confidence in the ability to predict impacts means that there is less need for frequent monitoring, in order to reduce the larger environmental impacts. The money from taxes can be better spent elsewhere in the community.

Public access

There is a fence and many signs which state that there is currently no public access to this site whilst development and treatment of the pipelines is ongoing. The fence serves as a symbol for the extent that humans have interacted with this ecosystem. It is a very obvious barrier which draws attention to the fact that no barriers are actually natural but are social constructions. The land beyond this fence is 'owned' by the City of Thorold and a line drawn on a map is all that marked the perimeter of the landfill site and stopped one area of the ecosystem from being contaminated. It marks how at different points in history, humans have had complete control over monitoring certain parts of a landscape, and the constant battle between humans and their environments. Landscapes can limit efforts to support ourselves or they can be manipulated to benefit human desire.

A timeline of the landfill- inspired by Dave Brown's The Legacy of the Landfill

Early hunter-gatherer societies in Canada would be very early aboriginals and in Europe this would be the Nomadic life-style. They had few problems with waste disposal due to a low population density which allowed them to freely discard possessions and waste. Seeing as the volumes of waste were small and material wealth was low, biodegradation took care of most discarded items.

The neolithic revolution brought about permanent agricultural societies which created the first problems of waste management.

Preindustrial agrarian societies were more advanced and fed food waste to livestock and composting crop refuse, animal excrement, and organic debris for fertiliser.

The first large-scale problems of waste management were brought about by urbanisation.

The English Parliament passed an act in 1388 that forbade the throwing of garbage into ditches, rivers, and waters.

In the late Middle Ages, population densities increased and the disposal of waste became more difficult.The streets of many European cities continued, well into the 19th century, to be used as garbage dumps and sewers. Municipal governments were forced to take responsibility for systematic urban waste collection and disposal.

By the turn of the last century, the new awareness of public hygiene brought considerable sanitation progress. Methods for collecting, transporting, and disposing of urban refuse became ever more sophisticated. Garbage collection was soon widely regarded as a municipal responsibility and subsequently taken for granted.

The ecological roles of wetlands was often overlooked due to limited knowledge of surface and subsurface hydrology. Marshes, bogs, swamps and rivers are now recognised as bad sites which planners used to prefer due to their limited economic value. The economics and infrastructural inertia of existing waste disposal systems were hard to overcome, even when the problems of soil and groundwater contamination became endemic. Unsafe landfills continued to be used despite their known hazards. The absence of clear and enforceable guidelines for landfill construction and siting has been an issue to this day with this example of the Rice Road landfill.

Today

Cleanup operations are designed to mitigate the hazardous waste, litter, vermin, noise, odour, and groundwater pollution problems plaguing the facility. Garbage is an inevitable by-product of human activity. "One man's trash is another man's treasure" applies as much to cultures and civilisations throughout history as it does to individuals. The contents of the refuse tip shows what is not valued in a society and thus, what is. The history of human civilisation is, quite literally, recorded in rubbish.

Globally, the most daunting challenges in waste management are in the developing world. The less economically developed countries have been exploited by the wealthier developed nations. Often, hazardous waste is shipped to other countries for them to deal with the environmental impacts as a form of business. The environmental, social, and health problems of waste in developing countries will continue to grow in the foreseeable future. If locally appropriate solutions are sought by the populace in both developed and underdeveloped nations, then precise global goals could work to reduce the volume and toxicity of our solid wastes.

In order to successfully achieve sustainable waste management, strategies must be established as rapidly as possible, vigorously explored and rigorously evaluated. Integrated solid waste management will always provide the challenge of the errors of the past, but it brings the opportunity for creative development of new and better products, services, and infrastructures to improve the quality of our lives.

Walker Industries. Mailing Address P.O. Box 100, Thorold, ON L2V 3Y8. Physical Address: 2800 Thorold Townline Rd, Niagara Falls, ON L2E 6S4. Contact: Toll Free: 1-866-694-9360, Phone: 905-227-4142, Fax: 905-227-1034. Email: contact@walkerind.com

Opwg.ca. (2019). Phragmites – Ontario Phragmites Working Group. [online] Available at: https://www.opwg.ca/phragmites/ [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].

Ontario.ca. (2014). [online] Available at: https://www.ontario.ca/page/sugar-maple [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].

Ontario.ca. (2014). Tulip Tree. [online] Available at: https://www.ontario.ca/page/tulip-tree [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].

Caroliniancanada.ca. (2004). Carolinian Species & Habitats - Forest Flora. [online] Available at: https://caroliniancanada.ca/legacy/SpeciesHabitats... [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].

Ontario.ca. (2014). Black Walnut. [online] Available at: https://www.ontario.ca/page/black-walnut [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].

Kroll, J. (2019). What do deer eat. [online] North American Whitetail. Available at: https://www.northamericanwhitetail.com/editorial/w... [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].

Spears, T. (2017). Growing wild turkey population takes bite out of Ontario forests. [online] Ottawa Sun. Available at: https://ottawasun.com/2017/10/13/growing-wild-turk... [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].

Wat on Earth. (1996). What is the Niagara Escarpment? | Wat on Earth. [online] Available at: https://uwaterloo.ca/wat-on-earth/news/what-niagar... [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].

Gilhespy, B. (2015). Escarpment Geology: Another part of our Living Landscape. [online] Brucetrail.org. Available at: https://brucetrail.org/system/downloads/0000/0782/... [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].

Giantsrib.ca. (2014). Formation of the Escarpment | Telling the story of the Niagara Escarpment. [online] Available at: http://www.giantsrib.ca/formation-of-the-escarpmen... [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].

Dunsmore, S. (2016). Request for Proposal (RFP) Abstract: Rice Road Landfill Annual Monitoring (Five-Year Contract). [online] Merx.com. Available at: https://www.merx.com/English/SUPPLIER_Menu.Asp?WCE...== [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].

Walkerind.com. (2016). Walker Industries Inc. [online] Available at: http://www.walkerind.com/carolinian-tree-saplings-... [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].

Gall, B. and Monteith, K. (2012). Constructing a treatment wetland at a Niagara Region landfill. [online] Ese.dgtlpub.com. Available at: http://ese.dgtlpub.com/2012/2012-08-31/pdf/constru... [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].

Thedirtyhandsproject.com. (2000). The Twelve Mile Creek Watershed Strategy. [online] Available at: http://www.thedirtyhandsproject.com/pdf/12%20mile%... [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].

Brown, David T. 1993. The Legacy of the Landfill: Perspectives on the Solid Waste Crisis. Chapter 1 (pp. 1 - 36) in: Mustafa, Nabil (ed.). Plastics Waste Management: Disposal, Recycling, and Reuse. Marcel Dekker, Inc, New York.

This Local Landscape Report was prepared by Robyn Palfrey for the Brock University course TMGT 2P94: Human Dominated Ecosystems on 7 November 2019

All copyrights for cited material rest with the original copyright owners.