The Squamish landfill is set to expand.
Council voted Tuesday at the public services committee to prepare an agreement with Evergreen Projects to extend the life of the landfill by expanding upwards.
Studies have shown that at the current rate, the Squamish landfill will be full by 2018, according to district staff.
By building outer walls upwards vertically to house more garbage, the current facility could last until about 2030, said Mircea Cvaci, a waste-management consultant who presented landfill options to council Tuesday
“That will give you enough time to explore other options to manage the waste,” he said, adding that with the expansion, the tipping fee revenue generated can be used to finance landfill operations.
There would be no need for a tipping fee increase until 2021, he said.
Building upwards, layering the garbage much like a layer cake, would require building two berms and installing permanent electric fencing. Over the extended lifespan, there would be a net zero cost for the vertical expansion, he said.
Rod MacLeod, the district director of engineering, told council that the final costing and details will be presented at a future council meeting for approval.
MacLeod recommended council support the vertical expansion and start on it as soon as possible.
“One of the reasons why doing this way makes sense is because you put some garbage in, you build the wall up aways, you put some garbage in, you build the wall up aways – you don’t have to build this huge high wall and then start filling in the hole,” said Macleod.
“If we don’t get going on it next year, we will be fighting with an existing pile of garbage.”
The other option, given the short timeframe on the landfill, would be to close the landfill in 2019 and start shipping waste out of the region, Cvaci said.
If council voted to close the landfill, the transfer station would have to be upgraded and the waste shipped to a facility to be landfilled in Washington State, Cvaci said.
Residential waste collection from May to September of this year yielded 1,988 tonnes of waste, according to a district document. Fifty-one per cent was garbage, 20 per cent was recycling and 29 per cent organic waste.
In 2014, for the same time period, 1,829 tonnes were collected, 65 per cent of which was garbage.
MacLeod said there will be a full audit of the district’s waste sometime this fall.
The proponent would pay the cost of the expansion upfront, MacLeod said.
The Squamish landfill has been at its current location since 1978.
District staff will complete an agreement and bring it back to council to approve. If the plan gets council’s nod, work for the expansion will take place over the winter and construction could begin in the spring, MacLeod said.
Please note, this story has been corrected since it was first posted to reflect that 29 per cent of the trash was organic waste.
