Dust Control – Soil Stabilization – Erosion Control

Posts Tagged ‘landfill closure’

Paying for the removal of the median along Blackcomb Way and its re-paving was a smart financial move for the municipality.

It is part of a financial agreement between the Resort Municipality of Whistler and the 2010 Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) explained chief administrative officer Bill Barratt.

Under the deal the RMOW will pay for paving upgrades needed for the 2010 Games, while VANOC will pay for the methane gas mitigation work needed at the site of the $46.8 million Rona High Performance Centre within the athletes’ village.

The deal cost the RMOW about $600,000 in paving, said Barratt.

It is not clear how much the methane work is costing VANOC, but its July board of directors meeting notes that $1.02 million was drawn from the contingency for methane gas mitigation work at the centre along with snow-making and ski run in-run out grading at Cypress and homologation work at the Vancouver Olympic/Paralympics Centre.

"It is a good financial plan," said Barratt, adding that it’s reflective of the strong partnership between the municipality and Olympic organizers.

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Ontario’s environmental watchdog has urged the province to shut down a controversial, 55-year-old garbage dump in Napanee.

The Ministry of Environment should immediately order the closing of the controversial Richmond Landfill site, Gord Miller, Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner, recommends in his annual report, released yesterday (tues).

"The (commissioner) believes that there are compelling environmental reasons for (the ministry) to require the immediate, orderly closure of the site and no compelling social or economic reasons for continuing to keep it open," Miller states, in the report.

The site is operated by Waste Management of Canada. Spokesman Wes Muir, reached yesterday afternoon in Toronto, said he could not comment.

"We haven’t had a chance to review the report at this time and we’ll be providing comment at a later date," Muir said.

In 2006, the Ministry of the Environment rejected Waste Management’s bid to expand the landfill so that it could accept up to 750,000 tonnes of trash annually.

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Bad weather may delay completion of Freeport’s landfill closure

A recent spell of rainy weather may derail efforts to complete Freeport’s landfill project prior to the arrival of winter.

Sue Grans, spokesperson for William Charles Construction, said Wednesday the contractor remains optimistic about finishing the project this fall. However, Grans acknowledged recent weather has put the project’s completion in jeopardy.

“We feel comfortable that we are on schedule,” Grans said. “But the rain has not helped and the days are getting shorter.”

William Charles Construction is the project’s primary contractor. However, the closure effort includes the City of Freeport, engineering firm Fehr-Graham & Associates, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Ben Bushman, project manager for Fehr-Graham, said Thursday he expects the majority of the landfill’s cover system to be completed this fall. However, contractors may struggle to establish the necessary “grass cover.”

“All of the earth moving will be complete this fall,” Bushman said. “Everything else is weather dependent, primarily the seeding.”

The vegetation, Bushman explained, serves more than an aesthetic purpose.

“If we cannot get adequate grass cover, we will run the risk of erosion, mainly due to the spring thaw,” he said.

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The Ontario Environmental Commissioner’s recommendation to close the Richmond Landfill Site immediately is “disappointing” for the company that operates the Napanee-area dump.

Wes Muir, director of communications for Waste Management, said the recommendation contained in Gord Miller’s annual report came as a surprise to his company. The site, he said, has active certificates of approval issued by the Ministry of the Environment.

“We were disappointed the environmental commissioner chose not to contact us to discuss this matter with us,” Muir said. “The Ministry of the Environment objected an opposition group’s request to close the site. What they came back with late last year is that our landfill is in accordance with its certificates of approval and … the ministry inspects our site for compliance.”

Muir said the monitoring looks into ground and surface water as well as air quality. Results indicate the site is safe, he said.

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A new plan for closing the town’s former landfill could clear a space for a skateboard park and other recreational uses, including a sidewalk connecting Hobomock Street with Learning Lane, officials said Monday.

The Board of Health, landfill manager Mike Valenti and a representative from Environmental Partners (the company engineering the project) provided selectmen with an updated plan for the landfill Monday night.

The landfill, located on Hobomock Street in front of the new recycling center, has not been used since the mid 1970s. The state Department of Environmental Protection has ordered the town to formally close the landfill by sealing, or “capping,” it with certain materials.

Board of Health member Lisa Cullity described the landfill cap as “a really giant, thick pool cover.”

The Board of Health has been studying the landfill for about 15 years, determining what’s buried, where and how deep, Cullity said.

The old plan was to truck in a large volume of contaminated materials, from big construction sites and other projects, to place over the old landfill and help cover the cost of the capping. Essentially, people would pay to get rid of their trash in Pembroke.

But a changing economy, less availability of materials and a lower price that likely would cover just 20 percent of the anticipated capping cost have led Pembroke officials to consider other options.

Environmental Partners was brought in about four months ago to help.

Company principal Mark White said, under the old plan, trucks would have brought in as much as 600,000 yards of material to fill in the site. There would have been a truck traveling through the center of town delivering materials every couple of minutes, Monday through Friday for about two years.

Several towns that have followed this plan have faced problems with managing the materials, both the cost of personnel and tracking what exactly is being dumped, Cullity said. The “fill” plan also would have left Pembroke with a hilly area that would not be usable for much more than walking over.

The new plan is to seal the approximately 20-acre landfill with a more permeable sandy/silty material rather than clay, allowed by the state DEP because studies have shown that what’s buried in the landfill is not dangerous.

“We have 15 years of gas study that show what’s in our ground just isn’t that bad. It just isn’t that harmful,” Cullity said.

Trucks still would have to deliver the cover material, but it would take a lot less with no fill material and a thinner cap of less than two feet, she said.

Including grading, drainage and construction, the project would cost an estimated $2.5 million, White said. The Board of Health receives about $50,000 every year at Town Meeting to cover ongoing engineering costs for the landfill closure.

The new design would make Pembroke eligible for low-interest loans from the state’s revolving fund, White said. Potential post-closure projects include renewable energy developments (wind and solar), walking paths connecting Hobomock Street with Learning Lane and a skate park.

“These are all things that make the state look at our project and say we’re not just looking for a money grab to slap a cover on our landfill and walk away,” Cullity said. “They want to see landfills turned into community assets, not community eyesores.”

White said they planned to prepare the site for closure and solicit bids during fiscal year 2012, two summers from now. Other projects, such as the skate park, could be started earlier and worked into the closure schedule.

Buena vista is dealing with a different problem that many landfills have. During a landfill closure a membrane is placed on the surface of the cap. This membrane is supposed to keep methane from leaking out into the atmosphere. The problem is that methane will seek the holes in the membrane and escape into the air. Then the landfill must find where the leak is coming from. That is a never ending chase of the ever elusive leak. With Top-Seal, if you ever have a leak in a general area, you simply apply a small amount to the area and roll it in. The leak will be repaired and the methane will stay where it is supposed to. The following story is a good example of what else can go wrong with a landfill.

WATSONVILLE – Leaking methane at the Buena Vista Landfill has prompted state regulators to add the facility to a black list of chronic violators.

A full report of the problem is still being compiled, but officials with the California Integrated Waste Management Board confirmed Friday that emissions of methane gas have exceeded standards for months, forcing the agency to downgrade the status of the county-run site last week to noncompliance.

The listing, while providing little detail on the safety risk at the facility or its rural environs west of Highway 1, requires the county to commit to a quick fix. Read the rest of this entry »