Revisions to the area’s solid waste management plan contain significant requirements for the City of Powell River to deal with abandoned landfill sites.
Powell River Regional District officials have been working on revising the 1996 solid waste management plan since 2008. While the revised plan was essentially complete by the end of 2009, the provincial ministry of environment requested some changes. The regional district subsequently contracted with a consultant to incorporate those changes into the draft plan and directors saw those revisions for the first time at the March 10 committee-of-the-whole meeting.
The changes include expanded information on active and inactive landfill and disposal sites to address closure and remediation plans, added sections on dispute resolution and procedure for authorizing new facilities and reference to provincial initiatives to reduce outdoor burning.
The revised plan requires the city to develop closure plans for the municipal airport site by 2011, Squatters Creek landfill by 2012 and the former waste transfer site by 2013.
“The closure plans will identify closure costs, monitoring requirements and costs, and any necessary remediation measures,” the draft plan states.
Chris McNaughton, a city director on the regional board, said the revised plan includes a significant unfunded liability for the city. Directors were poised to forward the draft plan to the March 24 regional board meeting. However, at the March 17 committee-of-the-whole meeting, they agreed to postpone consideration of the draft plan until May. In the meantime directed staff and the consultant to prepare revisions to the draft plan that are “satisfactory to all parties and to complete preparation of the proposed plan by April 30.”
McNaughton addressed the issue at the March 24 board meeting, in relation to the adoption of the five-year financial plan. He talked about a $282,211 surplus from the 2010 waste management budget. Staff recommended that there should be no requisition in waste management in 2011, but to avoid a large requisition increase in 2012, the 2011 requisitions for general administration, parks and cemeteries should be increased by $225,000 ($50,000, $100,000 and $75,000 respectively). Directors adopted that recommendation in a motion.
McNaughton pointed out even though he and Debbie Dee, the other city director on the board, voted in favour of that motion, he had raised the issue of using the surplus for closure plans for the former waste transfer site. He said that city residents contributed a majority of the surplus, through tipping fees.
“I voted in support of that tax shift into other areas because it was an opportunity to fulfill some of the regional objectives that otherwise wouldn’t have been fulfilled,” he said. “I think it’s important to acknowledge that this matter will come before the board.”
