The Squamish landfill is facing three major issues - it needs to expand by next year, it does not meet current environmental standards and the recycling facility needs to be improved.
Brian Barnett, District of Squamish engineering general manager, informed council at a Committee of the Whole meeting last week (April 19) that the landfill is at capacity and will have to expand horizontally, although the proposed expansion area has been reduced by five hectares.
Instead of expanding the landfill enough to last the next 20 years, Barnett said it would be more advantageous to expand on a smaller scale every five years.
"The distinct advantage with the five-year program is that the district will remain positioned to take advantage of alternative waste disposal options should they become available in the future," said Barnett, citing the waste-to-energy facility being tried out in Metro Vancouver as an example.
"We think that's a good plan from a strategic perspective."
Mayor Greg Gardner agreed the new plan made more sense.
"We don't want to build a landfill we know is going to last 100 years because it's likely we'll be reducing and there'll be another technology on the way," he said.
The proposed expansion area is on Crown land and the district is in talks with the Province to obtain permission for the expansion.
Barnett assured council the proposed area is consistent with the intergovernmental cooperation accord recently signed with the Squamish Nation, but chief administrative officer Kevin Ramsay said the Squamish Nation did have some concerns about the landfill expansion.
The effort to resolve the environmental standards issues at the landfill has been underway since the Ministry of Environment (MOE) issued a "non-compliance" certificate to Squamish in 2008 because leachate (polluted refuse water) was leaking into the soil surrounding the landfill.
Barnett said a recent inspection by MOE was much more positive with regards to operating standards. A detailed design of the landfill project is underway and tender documents are expected to be available in May so that construction can begin this summer.
Leachate volumes need to be reduced by covering and sealing the current drainage area and a liner system needs to be installed to collect leachate and protect groundwater systems, he said.
A component of the Comprehensive Solid Waste Strategy adopted last year and revisited on April 19 - to decrease the current 900 kilograms of waste per person to 800 kilograms by 2015 and to 600 kilograms by 2020 - evoked sharp criticism from Coun. Patricia Heintzman.
She was extremely disappointed by the waste targets, especially considering the Canadian average is 500 kilograms per person. Canada ranks 18th among the world's developed countries according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
"I'm finding those targets really not very ambitious and I would like to see us really ramp those up," Heintzman said.
"We're way out of whack with what best practices are."
Heintzman said she didn't necessarily expect the reductions to take place overnight, but said measures have to be adopted to make recycling as easy as possible.
"You have to make it simple and mandatory for people to react," she said.
"I would like to do better than the rest of the world eventually, but we need an ambitious long-term plan to make that feasible."
Coun. Rob Kirkham said he, too, would like to see that result but supported staff's reasoning.
"I would love to see our target be zero waste, but staff came up with this target based on information and funding restrictions," he said.
"You can solve everything with a lot of money."
Heintzman said if more ambitious targets were achieved, it would save the taxpayer money eventually.
"In the long term if we can triple the lifespan of our landfill, it saves everyone money," she said.
"If we do all we can to minimize waste, then the first expansion should be sufficient."
That includes diverting organic food waste from the landfill, an idea council members were keen to explore considering it accounts for 25 to 30 per cent of the waste going into the landfill.
However, Barnett said it wasn't feasible to have an organic waste plan ready for the spring, as he had hoped, but said it's on the radar.
Based on preliminary landfill upgrade construction estimate and future landfill operation and maintenance costs, Barnett said the tipping fees will need to increase to generate sufficient revenues.
"The bottom line is that we are not charging enough," Barnett said.
"Our true cost is $97 per tonne and we're charging $80 per tonne."
He also revisited the idea of implementing a solid waste utility to more closely control where and how much money goes into solid waste services.
Currently homeowners pay $120 per year for their waste collection and both homeowners and businesses pay $80 per tonne of garbage put into the landfill. The money goes into the general fund, which pays for roads, parks, transportation, flood protection and numerous other services.
If the $120 waste collection fee was changed into a utility, it would create a solid waste fund. Tipping fees would also go into the fund, making solid waste services spending more transparent and holding staff more accountable for the fund's sustainability.
"In the long run, this should decrease taxes because only the money put into solid waste services will be allowed to be spent on solid waste services," Barnett said.
A solid waste utility bylaw should come forward for council's consideration in the coming months.
