Something inherently pretty and calming results when the white stuff descends from above and blankets the landscape upon which it settles.
But when that white stuff is in the form of particles of polystyrene foam — styrofoam as it’s commonly called — that’s quite something else. It’s not pretty, and from an environmental or health standpoint, it’s far from calming. In fact, quite the opposite for East City resident Megan Boyles.
The Robinson Street resident recently took to Facebook — specifically the East City PTBO Neighbourhood Hub group — to express her dismay and frustration with styrofoam “snow” that has fallen on her property and, she says, throughout her immediate neighbourhood.
The result of contractors sanding the exterior of the insulated concrete forms (ICF), which are made with polystyrene, at the site of an Ashburnham Realty six-storey build south of Hunter Street East off the Rotary trail and nears Boyles’ property, the polystyrene particles have settled where the wind has carried them.
Making matters worse, says Boyles, is that it’s virtually impossible to pick up and dispose of the stuff — which means it will remain in the environment.
“This material does not break down,” posted Boyles, adding, “We cannot let this blatant disregard for the health of our environment, our children, and ourselves continue.”
Boyles is making two demands.
First, that Ashburnham Realty have work at the construction site halted until the entire building is tarped, or another way to contain the styrofoam residue is put in place. Second, that the City of Peterborough prohibit the use of styrofoam in the building process and that “the implementation of measures to ensure the surrounding environment is not impacted” are put in place.
Boyles told kawarthaNOW that styrofoam fallout from the work being done on other buildings at the development site occurred last year, but not to the same worrying degree.
“It didn’t reach as far as my house at that point,” she recalls.
But on Wednesday (June 18), her anxiety went up a huge notch.
“My son and my daughter and I were having a little breakfast picnic mid-morning and it was literally snowing styrofoam on our food,” she says. “I thought, oh my gosh, ‘We’ve got to get out of here before we start inhaling this.'”
The week prior, Boyles put her in infant son in a stroller for a nap.
“We have a screen (net) that goes over it (the stroller). The particles had gone through the screen and covered his clothing. It was likely that he was inhaling (the particles).”
“There’s been larger chunks of styrofoam flying around for quite a while. That bothered me, but I could pick them up easily enough and throw them out, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
“But this is really hard to clean up. It’s not going to decompose ever. We grow food on our property. We have kids playing on the grass. It scares me that it’s going to be there potentially forever.”
“I spoke today (Thursday) to someone who was at The Railyard Café (on Hunter Street East just north of the work site). There was styrofoam in their water glass.”
After Boyles raised the issue with the building site superintendent, a worker was sent to her property to vacuum up the styrofoam residue.
“They’re trying, but it’s not really good enough,” says Boyles, who has also had communication with Ashburnham Realty owner Paul Bennett.
“He (Bennett) is trying to mitigate (the styrofoam fallout) but it’s so hard to contain. I don’t want to say it’s impossible, but the way they have it set up now, it’s impossible.”
“They do have a vacuum attachment on their sanders but it’s not very effective. They’re six storeys up. It’s not like they’re sanding a foundation. It’s pretty hard to contain when you’re way up there.”
Approached for comment, Bennett declined an interview but, in an email, he noted he has “talked to Megan a few times and visited her home as well.”
“It’s something we’re not happy about at all,” he added.
“The contractor worked on a windy day (when we had asked him not to work on windy days). Before we were able to stop them, some of the particles got off the site. As per her (Boyles’) Facebook post, some got onto her property and has since been cleaned up. We visit her property, and the area, at the start and end of each day. We take this stuff very seriously.”
Bennett adds that “all environmental precautions recommended to us by the city and the MOE (Ministry of the Environment) prior to starting the work” have been adhered to.
That said, Boyles says mitigation measures that have been taken, including the partial tarping of a perimeter fence on the south and west sides of the work site, aren’t cutting it.
“The tarp is maybe one-foot high … it basically blows when the wind blows and lifts off the ground,” she says, adding “I don’t understand how it’s going to contain anything at all. If the wind was blowing the tarp against the fence, that would help.”
Boyles says Peterborough environmental officer Dan Snowball told her “This is a somewhat new building technique … doing the ICF above ground” and “The regulations … haven’t really caught up.”
The result, says Boyles, is “there’s no clean up protocol, or protocols to mitigate the mess.”
“The contractor could have chosen to scaffold the whole building and tarp it, but I imagine the added cost of that wasn’t in anyone’s interest,” she says.
In addition to reaching out to Bennett and Snowball, Boyles says she has been “playing phone tag” with Ashburnham Ward councillor Keith Riel, and has filed a report with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment — “The person I spoke to said there is likely nothing they could do; they thought it was in the city’s jurisdiction” to deal with.
According to Boyles, at Snowball’s direction, landscape fabric has been placed over storm sewer openings, and straw bales have been used to prevent the styrofoam residue from entering culverts leading to the on-site water catchment ponds.
Boyles emphasizes that Bennett has been “receptive,” noting “he appears to be trying.”
“It’s a really hard clean-up to do. The person who came over and vacuumed … I can’t really tell what they did. I think the guy kind of looked around and thought ‘What am I supposed to be doing here?'”
“Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have piles of little bits of styrofoam. I picked all the big chunks up. It looks like vermiculite everywhere. It’s stuck to everything. Maybe it will blow away to the next person’s lawn, but it’s here forever.”
“I do think he (Bennett) is making some effort. But the tarping (of the fence) is pretty sub-par. I thought ‘Is this for real?’ That’s your plan?'”
“Ashburnham Realty does a lot of stuff in the community. I see that and I appreciate it a lot. I’m sort of in disbelief that this is happening, and that it’s allowed to happen. It’s not like at the last minute they decided to use styrofoam and nobody knew it was going make a huge mess.”
“I hope the city can learn from this and do something around building materials and clean-up, and environmental and health impacts,” Boyle says.
