Landfills past, present and future make for over 4.3 million dollars in capital spending approvals

Two major projects related to the Ridley Island landfill site
were part of Monday's Capital Spending Review by City Council

Where we stored our garbage in the past, where we store it today and where it will go in the future made for a segment of Monday's Special Capital Spending Presentation, with a tally of over 4.3 million dollars in spending approved towards three projects.

The Old Wantage Road Dump is of some interest of the
Province which now has the city conducting a monitoring 
program for the long closed refuse site

The first item of note takes us back to the days of the Wantage Road Dump site, long closed but not forgotten by the Province of British Columbia, which has recently instructed the City to monitor the location, the task bringing with it an unexpected bill of 100,000 dollars.

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Councillor Cunningham had some questions related to the 100,000 dollars of spending, asking if the Utility fund is the right allocation for that, expressing concerns over potential increases there.

Towards the need for the funding for the monitoring, Director of Operations Richard Pucci provided a bit of background on the requirements from the province.

"At this point right now we're unsure how long we'll be doing this testing.  So as the justification talks about, is that there was a unilateral re-permit on the site. So originally there was what was called a pollution control order on the site, the site was closed in 1991. But during COVID Ministry staff reviewed a lot of the closed permits and they reissued a permit that required the city to start some very rigorous programming and monitoring of that site. So it's in the order of about 96,000 to complete that, we've got a proposal to do it. 

We are looking at working with the Ministry on finding a happy medium at that site possibly and also we've talked about other uses for that site as well.  So at this point we're keeping it in operations and one day that may be reduced or removed"

Ms Bomben added some further notes on the topic outlining how the city plans to allocate spending towards the issue

"And I will just add, that because utilities are a self funding fund, utility fees pay for all aspects unless we can find a grant for it, so it's appropriate for us to be paying for this capital item out of utility fees"

Two items of note made for review for the current Ridley Island Access Road landfill site, with Council approving Capital spending for the closure of one land fill cell and the opening of a new one.

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Neither of those two items related to the Ridley Island Road landfill site generated any discussion or comment from the Council members.

Everything you may want to know about the landfill sites can be reviewed from the City's Video Archive page starting at the 23 minute mark.

Further background on the themes of landfill development can be reviewed from our Major Projects archive page.

More notes on the Monday Council Session from our Council Timeline Feature.

Other items of interest on past Council Sessions can be explore through our Council Discussion page.