West Carleton landfill gets provincial go-ahead
By Maria Cook, Ottawa Citizen September 5, 2013
OTTAWA — A controversial proposal for a new landfill on Carp Road has won provincial approval in the face of concerns about odour, pollution, traffic and size of the facility.
The Ontario environment ministry announced Thursday that it has approved plans for the West Carleton Environmental Centre after an environmental assessment and public consultation.
“It means the project can move ahead,” said ministry spokeswoman Kate Jordan. “We were satisfied the site can operate in a way that is protective of the community and environment.”
Olivia Nixon, who represents a coalition of citizens’ groups that campaigned to stop the landfill, disagrees.
“It’s a recipe for disaster,” she said. “This landfill sits on fractured limestone which is highly vulnerable to groundwater contamination. There will be odour. Carp Road is already over-congested.
“It’s too close to too many people,” added Nixon. “Why would you build a landfill in the middle of three of the fastest-growing regions of the City of Ottawa — Kanata, Stittsville and Carp?”
Waste Management of Canada, the owner, plans a landfill that would take 400,000 tonnes of trash a year for 10 years. The project also includes waste diversion and recycling, composting, and renewable energy facilities.
The 37.8-hectare site is west of the Canadian Tire Centre and beside the old Carp Road dump, which closed in 2011.
The ministry’s approval comes with conditions: The company must establish a community liaison committee, a complaint response protocol and a ground- and surface-water monitoring program. It must have plans for property value protection and mitigation of species-at-risk.
The three councillors who represent the affected wards expressed disappointment at the decision.
“It’s unfortunate,” said Kanata North Coun. Marianne Wilkinson. “I was hoping they would listen to what we had asked municipally, which included reducing the size of the facility to about half and to meet targets for recycling. We could have lived with a smaller one. We don’t need one that big.”
Stittsville Coun. Shad Qadri noted that other City of Ottawa recommendations seem to have been ignored. Council wanted improved waste diversion for the industrial, commercial and institutional sector and tighter rules for odour control. It also called for the landfill to accept waste only from Ottawa and Lanark County and for the company to help pay for widening Carp Road.
“I don’t hear any of those addressed,” said Qadri. “I’m very disappointed.”
Not only that, said Eli El-Chantiry, councillor for West Carleton-March, but the ministry did not notify the city. He had to hear the news from reporters.
“We don’t get any heads-up,” he said. “I find it insulting.”
Jordan explained that approval related to the environmental assessment deals only with the proposed landfill site, not the recycling facility that the company also plans to build.
Conditions about the amount of waste that can be accepted, capacity of the site and decommissioning requirements will be set out later in ministry approvals required to operate the waste disposal site, she said.
Waste Management’s site manager Ross Wallace declined to comment, saying he hadn’t heard about the approval.
Phil Sweetnam, president of the Stittsville village association, struck a positive note. The ministry’s conditions and the community liaison committee “can hold WM to a high degree of accountability in ensuring a safe environment for our community,” he said.
“The approval of this landfill will provide an alternative disposal facility to deal with waste until the Plasco waste-treatment facility is operational,” he added.
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