What Is The Real Deal.

The location of a gas fired peaker plant in the Holland Marsh area is being challenged by King in an Ontario Municipal Board Hearing.

The main argument appears to be damage to growing fields. I keep waiting for the evidence. The argument doesn't make sense.

In the first place, marsh muck contains no natural nutrients. Chemical fertilizers must be added.

Much of it washes off in rain and massive sprinklers used by farmers, into the canal.But maybe the water in the sprinklers comes from the chemical drenched canal. The most difficult problem restoring health to Lake Simcoe comes from the fertilizers required to be added by marsh farmers.

Phosphates from detergent were also a major problem but less so since sewage from urban municipalities,Aurora and Newmarket are carried away by the regional trunk sewer.

When I was travelling, I noticed vibrant colours in the gardens of the City of Hamilton. Rambling roses grew with the profusion of dandelions. I commented one Monday morning when the board gathered that I thought pollution must be good for gardens. In Hamilton,you can taste and feel grit in your teeth.Windsor across the river from the foundries of Detroit was the same. But both cities had spectacular gardens and both had famous public botanical gardens.

Then there's Aylmer and vegetable farms all around. Farmers dump truck loads of broccoli,snow white cauliflowers and gigantic cabbages at the side of the road for sale,in an area, also in the fall-out from the foundries of Detroit and Windsor.

A board member who lived all his life, near Exhibition Place, in a narrow little street with tiny little garden, which he was especially proud of at this time of the year, commented on a Harrowsmith magazine feature.

Since the government banned soft coal burning in the U.K., after thousands of people choked to death in a 1956 London pea soup fog, English gardens were no longer legendary.

I was there then. I remembered; soot from chimneys was added to garden soil. Ashes from the fire as well.

Eight hours exposed to sun in London, wouldn't bring as much as a tinge of pink to the skin, let alone a tan.

The layer of pollution between the sun and the earth was so dense, no ultra violet rays penetrated. The only thing missing in summer was the fog

A bit of a wind over the Holland Marsh, lifts the soil and swirls it away in a black cloud and that becomes a problem of loss for the farmers.

Marsh muck is only a good growing medium because it allows roots to grow in perfect
shape. Nutrition must be added for the vegetables to be nutritional.

Even if there were chemicals falling from the peaker plant's especially tall chimney designed to carry the smoke away, would they not be the same chemicals that fell from chimneys that burned coal that made English gardens legendary.And the foundries of Detroit and Winndsor and Hamilton.

In Scotland, gas was produced from coal. The process left massive clumps of cinders as a by-product. I think they were crushed and used for certain road surfaces.

In Canada, natural gas comes from the ground. The same place as oil, The same place as coal. All are fossil fuels in different stages of decay.

Well now, I am not trying to be an expert. I do not argue for a peaker plant in an agricultural versus an industrial area.

If I were a resident of King, I would certainly enjoin the battle.

It sure looks to me as if the location was chosen because it was a line of least resistance.

But I would like to hear the counter argument that fall-out from a peaker plant will destroy marsh soil as a growing medium.

I also like to note how apparently inexpert, experts can be.