The city is reiterating its opposition to the Taro dump’s expansion in response to owner Terrapure’s draft environmental assessment of the bid.

A letter to the company endorsed without comment by councillors at their Sept. 18 planning committee meeting also outlines a number of outstanding issues that had yet to be “adequately addressed” when staff reviewed the preliminary assessment.

These include details on the expansion’s impact on the surrounding area’s tax assessment, property values, ambient noise and private wells.

The 1,500-page draft assessment also doesn’t specify how Terrapure will screen the visual impact of increasing the site’s height by another 2.5 metres, the city’s response states.

Terrapure is seeking provincial approval to boost Taro’s capacity to 10 million cubic metres — an increase of 3.68 million cubic metres, or nearly 60 per cent — and raise the peak height of its waste to 21 metres above street level.

The plan also returns the site to an original 59-hectare footprint approved in 1996 by placing waste in an 18-hectare stretch along Green Mountain Road now set aside for clean fill and by reopening a capped section near Mud Street.

Former owner Newalta Corp. got approval to shrink the waste footprint in 2013 in return for raising the site’s initial 14.5-metre height by four metres.

Terrapure communications director Greg Jones said the draft assessment has already been updated to address several of the city’s concerns, which were submitted prior to the document’s Aug. 31 release to the wider public.

The EA does, for instance, analyze the effect on tax and property values, concluding there will be none because the capacity increase will be contained on site and have negligible environmental and other impacts.

Jones said Terrapure is also recommending a survey to identify and monitor private wells that may be affected by the dump.

He said a noise assessment has been updated to reflect the city’s input and projects that traffic growth from future development will be louder than the dump’s operations.

The assessment estimates the dump will increase noise by up to five decibels for 75 homes to the north, but Jones said that’s well below the provincial threshold requiring mitigation.

As for visual impacts, he said a variety of options are outlined in the draft EA for public feedback and the company will come up with a more detailed plan if the expansion is approved.

The public and official review agencies like the city, school boards, Hamilton Conservation Authority and provincial ministries have until Oct. 24 to submit comments on the assessment to Terrapure.

The document is available for viewing at the Valley Park public library and online at www.terrapurestoneycreek.com/document-library.