Waste issues: BFI, organics, Huronia Lookout, farmers

By Kate Harries AWARE Simcoe April 11 2012
Simcoe County’s corporate services committee voted today to accept a staff report recommending that BFI  Canada be awarded the waste collections contract, for $10.7 million in the first year.  The bid is $2.6 million less than is budgeted for 2012. The decision has to be ratified by county council.

“I’m not going to vote in favour of this,” said Penetanguishene Mayor Gerry Marshall.  “I’ve got  very deep concerns – all our eggs in one basket, and I question if this will not result in significant issues for us moving forward in future.”
 Marshall has argued persistently in favour of having “a second player” in the county’s waste collections setup.
The second bidder, only identified as ‘B,’ was the overall points winner in East Simcoe, he pointed out, and on the financial side was just $40,000 extra which is “almost invisible” on a $10.7 million contract.
Single-source savings only apply to the 2012 budget figures and will only be realized if everythingsremain status quo, Marshall added. “As soon as we make changes to the contract the prices will be open for review and will increase,” he said. “ I do not believe for one moment that the county of simcoe will not make changes to the way we manage waste in the next seven years. “
In addition the county will be putting a very reliable firm out of business.  “I have a real issue with that personally,” he said.
Environmental services director Rob McCullough said the contract does allow for changes in the way the county manages its waste.
Collingwood Deputy Mayor Rick Lloyd said he has 2.6 million reasons to vote for BFI.
Opportunity missed to stress importance of using green bins, Kramp says
Organics make up 35 per cent of material going to landfill – where they produce dangerous methane gas and toxic leachate
The current roll-out of the County’s ‘Blue Grew’ program  (introducing larger boxes and an expanded list of acceptable plastic containers), while welcome, represents an opportunity missed, says  Midland Deputy Mayor Stephan Kramp.
Kramp said he regretted the campaign had been launched without county councillors being given the opportunity to provide input.  He pointed out that blue box recyclables only make up 10 per cent of divertable materials, while organics (food waste) make up 35 per cent.
Information about the importance of the green bin program is included in the “Managing your Waste” flier that is being distributed to residents.  It states that “if just 10 per cent more county residents participated in the green bin program, it would dwarf the result of adding additional plastics to the blue box program.”
The negative impact of organics being added to the landfill site include the production of methane gas, a greenhouse gas that’s 20 per cent more harmful than carbob dioxide, and the production of leachate, which threatens the water table and has to be collected and treated at great expense, Kramp said.
Kramp said he felt the campaign to go after the 10 per cent (recyclables) offered an opportunity to also go after the 35 per cent with green bin information included in the blue boxes. “It’s that opportunity to do the cross-education of our residents on what’s really really important… The motherlode of diversion is the green bin,” he said. “Are we going to have to do a complete separate campaign?”
Kramp  questioned whether the expanded blue box will result in fewer recyclables going to the dump while residents still have the option of a “free” bag into which they can put recyclables. 
Environmental services director Rob McCullough noted that last year staff had brought forward options that would have made increased diversion easier and more economical for householders (presumably a reference to user-pay, which was one option, and bi-weekly garbage pickup, which was another) “but council was not prepared to make such a dramatic switch and so we have to go forward with what we have in front of us.”
Staff did not want to “dilute the message” about what was changing in the blue box program with Increased emphasis on the organics.
“I don’t buy that,” said Kramp. Residents would be anxious to avert the harmful effects of organics through methane gas and leachate if they understood that methane gas and leachate are the result, he said. He added  that this discussion by councillors should have happened before the campaign was rolled out. “I think the elected representatives should have the opportunity to see this program ahead of time and be able to comment on it so we can provide input.”
Kramp proposed moving forward consideration of a mandatory diversion bylaw, something that’s recommended for next year in the Stantec waste management strategy.  The suggestion was voted down by other committee members.
Huronia Lookout beset by methane gas, soaring costs 
The Huronia Lookout, a project to create a tourist attraction on top of a closed landfill site of County Rd. 28 south of Minesing, has almost doubled from $975,000 to a possible $1.7 million. The increase is the result of the addition of a methane ventilation cutoff trench to deal with potentially explosive gas that has recently been discovered to be trapped under the parking lot. The cost of a bronze sculpture of two figures, one aboriginal and one an explorer, has risen from $400,000 to $450,000.
Friends of the Huronia Lookout retained the consultant Inspire to assist with their $1 million fundraising project and have pledges of $500,000. Committee chair Harold Parker  told county councillors he couldn’t tell them at this stage what the costs will be.”Methane gas is something like quicksilver,” he said. “You think you have it cornered and then you don’t.” Oro-Medonte Deputy Mayor Ralph Hough asked that an update be brought back to the committee before development proceeds.
Farmers can take household hazardous waste to county facilities
At the last county council meeting, BWG Deputy Mayor Rob Keffer raised the issue of farmers with household hazardous waste being turned away from the County’s BWG transfer station. The issue, it appears, was that hazardous waste arriving in a vehicle bearing farm licence plates was assumed to  be farm- and not household-related. Adjala-Tosorontio Mayor Tom Walsh picked up on the matter at committee today, pointing out that farmers pay residential taxes on their home and an acre of land, and are entitled to the household service. Environmental services director Rob McCullough assured Walsh that county workers are required under the certificate of approval to question whether the waste is business-related but “if you took your truck with your farm plates and said that it (the waste) came from your house, our people have been told that it’s not to us to question the veracity of your answer.”