The town has made a big jump forward in its long planned move to a new waste transfer site, an initiative that continues its evolution towards a more cost effective and environmentally friendly system in handling the municipality's garbage.
“We know we want to make changes. We know we want to relocate the facility but we are going to try to gradually move off the domestic garbage collection at that particular site,” said Craig Teal, director of planning and operational services. “People have lots of opinions on how best to go about it and over the last few years the town has been changing, and in my view enhancing in the way we provide solid waste services that includes the introduction of curbside recycling pickup.”
On April 28, town council approved a five-point plan by administration that includes the relocation of the current 6.5-acre waste transfer site in the southwest corner of town to a new two-acre site at the north end of the town yard near the intersection of 57 Avenue and 37 Street. Council was told a second potential site, located west of the sewage lagoon along 61 Avenue, was reviewed but ultimately rejected as it was considered too secluded with a risk of attracting illegal dumping.
Teal said it is hoped the new site will be operational by the summer or early fall of 2015.
Council's approval also included administration's preferred design and layout for the new waste transfer site, as well as constructing portions of the new facility by using available funds in the 2014 budget.
Administration also received approval to decommission and dispose of the garbage compactor this year at the existing site. The new site will not have a compactor.
Council was also told the burn pit service will not be continued at the new site, as the practice is becoming more difficult to be in compliance with Alberta Environment requirements. In place of the burn pit, the design of the new site includes an area to pile brush, which will then be mulched by a contractor and then shipped to a composting facility.
“With the discontinuance of the two services (burn pit and compactor) it is difficult to classify the facility as a waste transfer station. In essence it would become a recycling and solid waste depot,” said Teal's report to council.
Council's approval also allows administration to set aside $282,000 in the 2015 budget for the relocation and construction of the new facility, which is about a third the size of the present site. Teal said the town's renewed focus on recycling waste, along with a reduction of transfer site services -- including the removal of the compactor -- gave the town the opportunity to move on a new site that has a significantly smaller footprint than the current facility.
While the garbage compactor will be removed this year at the current site, it will be replaced with bins for citizens who still want to dispose of their domestic garbage, an activity that will be phased out at the new waste transfer site.
“In the overall transition one of the things we are trying to do is get less domestic garbage collection since we have alternatives on how to do that and move over more to recycling,” said Teal.
He said domestic garbage will still be picked up at homes by Waste Management, the town's contract service provider, and transported to a landfill site, or taken to the Horn Hill Solid Waste Transfer Station.
As well, residents can on Mondays, from May to October, dispose of yard waste in approved containers.
See story on new fee structure for waste transfer site on page 27.
