The District of Squamish is nearing the end of its landfill upgrades, with $1 million untouched in the bank.
On Tuesday (July 2), council approved an approximate $2 million tender to officially close the old landfill. Since 2010, the municipality has been working on upgrading the dump after the Ministry of Environment issued the district a non-compliance certificate in 2008. At the time, polluted refuse water was leaching into the soil surrounding the landfill.
The $2 million upgrade marks the last major task of the environmental work, sealing off the facility where trash is no longer being deposited, said Rod MacLeod, the district's director of engineering. A geomembrane liner will be placed over the top of the old dump to prevent water from contacting the waste and becoming lechate. Drainage ditches, culverts and catch basins to divert the clean water away from the area is part of the project, along with covering the mound with soil and seeding the site.
District officials plan to place gas collection pipes into the dump for possible future use, MacLeod said. The Regional District of Nanaimo generates electricity from such bio-gas, while the Columbia Shuswap Regional District diverts it into the Terasen Gas network.
Last year, district officials were handed a $4 million grant from Canada's Gas Tax Fund. The full amount will likely be used for this year's work, noted a engineering report to council, but Squamish's $2.2 million capital borrowing approved for the project won't be touched. Officials anticipate keeping close to $1 million in the piggy bank.
Work on closing the old landfill will take an estimated 10 weeks, MacLeod said. The project is scheduled to be complete by late September.
King Hoe Excavating Ltd. of Abbotsford has been contracted to do the work. Coun. Ron Sander questioned why there were so few local bids in the submissions for the job, noting he only recognized one of the five names.
A couple of Squamish companies did inquire about the work, MacLeod said. The businesses were already busy and couldn't fit the project into their schedules, he said.
