2.0°C Not observed 
Squamish’s landfill may start reaching further to the sky if council accepts an extension plan to build surrounding walls to increase its vertical capacity.
Tony Sperling of Sperling Hansen Associates Inc. suggested extending the lifespan of the landfill by constructing Geogrid Reinforced Berms 10 to 15 m high around the existing perimeter at a Committee of the Whole Meeting on June 23.
The $6-million dollar project would provide 464,000 cubic metres of capacity and could extend the landfill’s lifespan to 2026 if used exclusively for Squamish waste. If shared with Whistler or the rest of the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD), the extra capacity would be filled by or prior to 2017 but Squamish’s investment would be cut to about $2.5 million of the total $6 million.
A shared regional landfill would also result in substantially lower life cycle costs. Squamish would pay about $65 per tonne rather than $78 per tonne if kept exclusively local. Sperling estimates the trade-off is nine years of landfill lifespan versus $150,000 per year in cost savings.
District operations manager Gord Prescott recommended Squamish invests in the project alone and gain the longer lifespan.
“It just seems at this point, my recommendation is that we’d be better off having it long-term for Squamish than the savings in either capital or reduction in operating costs. But that will be up to council to decide,” he said.
Mayor Greg Gardner said the concept needs to be reviewed, but he expressed interest in the vertical expansion during a post-meeting interview.
“The advantage is that it would not expand our footprint in terms of using more land for the landfill,” he said.
The landfill is expected to run out of capacity in early 2011. Sperling suggested completing a detailed design by this winter and having the expansion completed by 2010, subject to Ministry of Environment approval and amendments to the Solid Waste Management Plan.
Meanwhile, a concept for a regional landfill on Crown Land is still in the works, but approvals aren’t likely to come for another three to five years. A regional landfill expansion is projected to last until 2054.
Sperling took the regional landfill concept into account when he delivered his final recommendation. If council approves the vertical berm plan, it would be better off sharing with the SLRD granted it is committed to developing a regional landfill in the near future. If council is leaning toward an alternative long-term plan such as waste export, Squamish is better off restricting the landfill to local waste.
