A contract for the second phase of the resource-recovery centre has been awarded to Tervita Corporation, the company hired to take care of the first phase of the reclamation of the old incinerator site.
“They met all of the mandatory criteria of the request for proposals,” said Mike Wall, qathet Regional District’s manager of asset management and strategic initiatives. “Additionally, they were the lowest bid as far as overall price. A new, important feature is this is the first qRD tendering process to go out that included our new social procurement policy.”
Wall said 10 per cent of the rating to select a proponent involved what they identified as their social obligation to the project. He added that there was an environmental tie-in with that as well.
“Not only did [Tervita Corporation] rate the highest, price wise, because they had the lowest price, but they were also in the top two for the social procurement rating,” said Wall. “As far as their experience, qualifications and past performance, they also rated in the top for those categories.”
The bidding attracted eight qualified proponents.
Tervita brought phase one of the project in under budget.
Let’s Talk Trash team member Tai Uhlmann said Tervita was a great company to work with in carrying out the first phase, which involved cleanup, organizations and processing of stockpiled materials.
Wall said Tervita has identified that between 60 and 70 per cent of the labour for phase two will be sourced locally.
“Tervita is a company that really tries to research and hire qualified local service providers,” said Wall.
Tervita’s bid for the second phase came in around $1.1 million. The highest bid was around $2 million.
Wall said the primary focus of the second phase is completing the landfill closure as per the engineered design, which has been approved by the provincial ministry of environment and climate change strategy.
“Essentially, what we are going to do in this phase is dig up identified ash materials,” said Wall. “In the first phase, everything was on the surface. This one is going to be digging up and excavating everything subsurface that we know about and transporting onto the landfill.
“We are going to close the landfill as per the engineered design. That will be grading it, taking it down to a three-to-one slope and encapsulating it in a geomembrane. Once we encapsulate it, then there is a ballast cover of about one metre, and then two metres of more organic material that will become a growing medium. Then, it’s hydroseeded.”
Wall said rainwater will not be able to permeate the encapsulated landfill. He said it is an accepted and approved method of closing old waste sites.
Design specifications were completed by an engineering firm called Tetra Tech, which has been a consultant associated with the resource-recovery centre, through a regional board directive.
Wall said a lot of work is also being done internally and staff members have been working diligently to help with its success.
“There is local expertise, inside and outside of the qRD and the City of Powell River, that we’ve drawn upon to make sure the professionals at Tetra Tech are informed,” said Wall. “The enclosure design should incorporate as many of the lower cost natural assets that exist on and around the site to perform the required services. There’s a good knowledge bank here.”
Phase two is forecast to be completed in mid-November. Wall said the regional district wants to get all exposed ash materials closed up before the heavy rains.
Work will ideally begin the last week of August.The majority of equipment and operators brought in will be local.
Completion of the second phase will provide for the third phase, which will be the construction of the centre.
Wall said while the second phase is going on, qRD is working with Tetra Tech to put out another tender, and request for proposals, for detailed design of the facility. This will include the architectural and engineering design.
“We anticipate that tender will go out before the end of Augustand we’ll select a proponent by the end of September, and then have that design happening so we can be looking to tender the actual construction of the facility in early 2021,” said Wall. All of the information that has been gathered by qRD staff researching other facilities, and the engagement that has occurred with the public, has been forwarded to Tetra Tech for them to incorporate into the request for proposals. These have been vetted by representatives from the city, regional district, and recycling and waste collection businesses.
Efforts have been made to reuse and recycle materials at the site as much as possible. In phase two, some trees around the site are going to have to be felled. City of Powell River and Tla’amin Nation have been consulted with regard to the tree removal. Some of the trees identified will be specialty cut to create lumber for the resource-recovery centre.
The remaining timber is going to a local mill for milling. About 20 per cent of it will be used in the new facility.
“We are making every effort possible through all stages of the work to reuse or repurpose,” said Wall. “We’ll be able to walk through that facility, point and tell a story.”
Uhlmann said an example needs to be set if people are being asked to look at waste as an opportunity.
“I want people to walk into that facility and feel inspired,” said Uhlmann.
The regional district has posted videos of work that has taken place at the centre at qathet.ca/current_project/resource-recovery-centre/.
Uhlmann reminded residents that it is a closed site, and not to venture into the area.
