I’m not keen on simply throwing garbage into a hole, but I think that it would be good to actually know the truth about what is happening and what is not.
Here is an article from the Citizen, from October 1985. In it, there is the statement that the Trail Road dump will be full by about 1990.
The Trail Road Landfill site, which we currently use, is across Trail Road from the old Nepean Dump. It was established because the Nepean Dump was nearing its capacity. Stage 1 of the Trail Road Landfill began accepting waste in 1980 and has been enlarged in four stages. I believe that Stage 4 is the one that we are filling now.
A city report in 1997, estimated that the Trail Road Landfill site would be at capacity around 2006. However, it also mentioned that proposed waste diversion was expected to prolong the site’s life.
In 2001, the city of Ottawa applied for an expansion of the capacity of the Trail Road facility, and got Provincial approval. This expansion involved increased height over Stages 1-4, and creation of a Stage 5. It was estimated at the time that the expansion could add up to 40 years of capacity to the site.
https://www.ontario.ca/page/trail-wa...zation-project
In a 2019 tour of the site, Glen Gower was told that Stage 4 was expected to be full around 2042. This was also the date that staff presented to Council in a July 2019 report.
https://pub-ottawa.escribemeetings.c...cumentid=25976
Now we are being told that it will be full by 2036. This, despite waste diversion climbing to 60%, currently. And the Province has mandated that 70% of solid waste be diverted.
In the 2022 budget, there was money allocated for “Landfill Disposal Stage 5 Development” ($18M) and “Trail Road Landfill – Expansion & Development” ($950K). Is the city finally getting around to implementing Stage 5? If so, won’t that add on decades of additional storage?
https://pub-ottawa.escribemeetings.c...cumentid=80535
So, what is the complete story?
And while we are talking about landfills and dumps, how about we mine the old Nepean Dump, on the south side of Trail Road? It was not built to modern standards, and has a problem with leaching – despite being capped with a plastic sheet. Let’s mine it; line the resulting pit, and re-use the site for future waste disposal.
Yes, I know that we do need to find more sustainable solutions, but we are always going to need landfill facilities – even with other waste management strategies.
The city is finally getting around to creating a Waste Management Plan, and that should provide a much better view of the situation. But I’d still like to know what is really happening, today.