CDC seeks common ground on garbage

By WES KELLER Orangeville Citizen May 6 2010
Shelburne council is conditionally committed to sending the town’s household solid waste to the proposed gasification facility at Dufferin EcoEnergy Park (DEEP), but it’s difficult to know whether the council would favour a total takeover of waste management by the county.However, the purpose of Monday night’s meeting of the council with Dufferin’s council with Dufferin’s Community Development Committee was not to establish a means of having the county take over waste management, but to determine on what terms each municipality would be willing to agree to use the proposed thermal treatment plant.
A transfer of waste management control would
We require a triple majority vote at county council – the agreement by a majority of the eight municipalities, representing at least half the population of the county, as well as a majority of the county council votes.
More importantly, perhaps, the county needs the overall waste stream as well as agreements with neighbouring municipalities. It has approached the counties of Wellington, Grey, Simcoe and Halton, CDC chairman Ed Crewson said, but understandably has had no commitments, although “no one has said no.”
He acknowledged that the topic has been bandied about for so long that “we almost haven’t believed (the reality) ourselves,” and others might have some difficulty believing the facility will come to fruition.
Shelburne was the second Dufferin municipality approached by the committee. Chairman Crewson (who vacated the mayor’s chair to represent the committee), reported that the first municipality, East Luther Grand Valley, indicated it would like Dufferin to take its waste stream and dump as of January 2011.
Shelburne council was not so quick on the draw. “We would have to know what the deal would look like,” said Councillor Randy Chambers, although he indicated the council is supportive.
On the other hand, Councillors AJ Cavey and Walter Benotto concurred in their opposition to the county assuming responsibility for the eventual closing of the four existing landfill sites.
“Shelburne has already paid for (closure of its dump). Why should the Town pay to make it easier” for others to close
theirs, said Ms. Cavey.
Deputy Mayor Ken Bennington said the proposed facility “will be needed if Michigan closes (its borders at the end of) 2010.
The takeover of dumps was not an immediate issue in any event as the “haves” – Amaranth, Melancthon, Mono and Mulmur – had recently indicated they don’t wish to transfer ownership. In a carefully drafted motion, however, mover Chambers included a provision that the county should not take over any landfill sites when it does take over the waste streams.
The added provisions of the approved motion were that the cost of dumping to the new facility should be “targeted” at $80 a tonne, and the county should negotiate a 12-cent per kwh feed-in tariff price for electricity purchased by Ontario Power Authority. (The OPA’s published rate for this type of generation is 10.4 cents a kilowatt hour.
On Tuesday, Public Works Director Trevor Lewis said Mulmur council had various questions but made no commitment as “not all members were present.” He said the township will be considering the waste-stream proposal at its next meeting.
CDC was scheduled to meet with Melancthon this morning, Orangeville Monday night, Mono on Tuesday and Amaranth on the 19th.
Two of the attractions for the townships, whether owners of dumps or otherwise, might be that the proposed plant is capable of handling sludge from septic systems and sewage plants, and is also a nearby outlet for the mining of existing dumps.
Warden Allen Taylor says the greatest cost of mining landfill sites is transportation.
The hope of the committee is that a “common ground” on waste develops from the meetings with local municipalities.