Orillia taxpayers are being unfairly saddled with a hefty bill because of an ill-conceived land deal, a local environmentalist charges.

“This is completely insane,” Kelly Clune said.

Clune watched in disbelief as council committee supported a plan to spend close to $300,000 on the first phase of a plan to deal with contaminants that have leached from the MURF site to neighbouring lands.

Littered with chemicals, including vinyl chloride, the former industrial property was donated to the city by Molson Canada.

“When the company says it’s going to sign away all past, present and future liabilities for a dollar, no one in their right mind would have gone for that,” she noted. “Now the citizens of this community are bearing the cost of that.”

An investigation conducted between April and July found that the “chemicals of concern” have migrated to the southeast “at least 400 metres,” consultants Gartner Lee Ltd. reported this week.

“The full extent of the contaminant plume has not been delineated,” it added in a presentation to council.

Based on testing done to date, the firm’s principal, Bob Leech, said the chemicals appear to be breaking down as they migrate from the property.

The majority of contaminants were found in the bedrock at average depths of about 20 metres with “no exceedences of compounds” in shallow soil or groundwater, staff added.

In a statement issued by the city, Leech is quoted as saying “there are no immediate risks to the environment.”

A three-year work plan developed by Gartner Lee proposes further study of the underground chemicals and their impact on neighbouring lands.

It will also identify potential measures to manage or remediate those chemicals.

The estimated cost of carrying out the first stage of that plan is $290,000, though the final bill will depend on the extent of the contamination and how council chooses to deal with it, the firm said.

The projected cost over the three-year period ranges from a low of $1 million to a high of $4.4 million, Leech said.

“It is unreasonable that the citizens of this community have to be responsible for the cost of this,” added Clune.

While acknowledging the city must address the off-site chemicals, she questioned the wisdom of accepting land that was known to be contaminated.

“What kind of legal advice did the city get on this contract?” she added.

A second phase of the investigation will assess the potential risk to human and ecological health posed by contaminants flowing from the MURF site.

The study would also determine how the chemicals are distributed in soil and groundwater while focusing on any natural features that may control their migration.

Drilling would begin this year, with additional testing schedule to take place next April.

A report on the findings of those investigations would arrive on council’s desk by the end of June.

Nearby property owners along Norweld Drive and West Street have been contacted and will be kept abreast of the work, staff said.

Coun. Joe Fecht, however, voiced concern over the process.

He argued that residents would have little opportunity to digest and comment on the consultants’ findings and recommendations prior to council voting on the matter next week.

A portion of the $290,000 bill – about $80,000 – would be funded through a budget earlier approved to deal with industrial contaminants originating at the MURF site.

Staff is recommending that the remainder be pre-approved in advance of the 2008 budget, and funded through the major capital facilities reserve.