As Lando said in the Empire Strikes Back…
You might remember hearing back in September that Waste Management applied to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment for permission to bring construction and demolition waste from Quebec to the landfill facility on Carp Road.
A number of people in the community, me included, raised concerns about the impact this would have, including increased truck traffic and a slide down a slippery slope in regards to waste transfer between jurisdictions.
Even the City of Ottawa has raised the red flag.
“The City is concerned that this request for a service area change is a significant variance from the service area intended in the recently completed Environmental Assessment (EA) for this facility,” wrote Kevin Wylie, the city’s general manager of public works and environmental services, in a letter to the Ministry of the Environment (MOE).
“At no point over the past ten years of this project… did WM consult the public regarding accepting waste from western Quebec,” he wrote. (Wylie’s full letter is included below.)
Last week, Waste Management received approval to accept waste from a large area of Western Quebec including the Outaouais, Abitibi-Temiscaming and Laurentides regions.
The MOE says the service area change won’t require a new EA because the approval only applies to the facility’s transfer station, not the actual landfill. In other words, the waste material will get shipped in by truck from Quebec, sorted at the Carp Road landfill, and then trucked away to another dump.
Since most of the garbage will be coming from West Quebec, it likely means more truck traffic crossing the interprovincial bridges and travelling through Ottawa’s downtown.
There is a small window to appeal the decision. Members of the public have until March 21 to request a hearing by Ontario’s Environmental Review Tribunal (ERT).
- UPDATE / MARCH 17: City will appeal MOE decision on Carp landfill service area
- UPDATE / MARCH 22: UPDATE: Waste Management “taking steps to review” Quebec garbage application
I can only wonder what other surprises will be in store for when this expanded landfill eventually opens…
(Thanks to Harold Moore & COLA Ottawa for the heads up on this.)
How did this happen? This is disgusting to say the least!
No where in the approved amendment to expand the service area to include western Quebec (which happens to be over 109,000 km2 and a million people) does it state a target for how much of the waste coming from western Quebec will diverted and recycled. Thus most of the waste could end up in Ontario landfills using up a valuable provincial resource. In fact it will probably end up in the Carp road landfill when it starts operations. Unless operations at facility change where diversion has been only about 1 to 3% since it opened in 2011 there is a good chance there will be a considerable amount of Quebec waste going to the landfill.
Funny how the announcement of the approval to take Quebec garbage came during the March break. Could it be the Ministry and Waste Management didn’t want a public backlash. They know that since they started this process back in 2006 that the City and community did not want Quebec garbage.
Why don’t we just close it down without provincial approval. Close the roads to it.
This is such old technology. Why are garbage land fill sites not forced to build high efficiency incineration plants. There is one along the 407 in Brampton. It has been in use since the 90’s. You would never know it’s there. I recently drove past a WM land fill site beside the Florida Turnpike in south Florida and its stinks to high heaven. South Florida is home to millions of people and tourists and this still exists. Thousands of vulchers are also flying around carrying garbage as well. It’s Pathetetic!
It is now time Ontario changed its garbage laws/regulations and allowed Ottawa to incenerate. Either change the laws for change the government. What will come first?