City earmarks funds for Carp landfill fight

Community groupsin Ottawa could soon get help from the city to fight the proposed expansion of the Carp Road landfill site.

A fund has been set up to help community groups research and present their opinions to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.

The $75,000 from the Solid Waste Reserve Fund will be distributed to community groups affected by the latest plans to expand the site. The money is made up of contributions from the various waste handling companies in the Ottawa area.

Vincent Lavoie with the Richardson Corridor Community Association said his group would definitely tap into the funds to fight the expansion. Lavoie contends associations need help to counter any claims made by the landfill's operator.

"Defending against these arguments requires preparation, requires scientific research sometimes, and requires specialists, access to specialists which private citizens just cannot afford," he said.

Shad Qadri, a city councilor for Stittsville, also agrees that the resources are needed.

"The community needs resources, professional resources in terms of whether it be lawyers, whether it be people putting the document together, whether it be doing research on leaching or other components of the landfill," Qadri said.

Plans cleared

Plans for an expanded landfill at the site cleared the first hurdle with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment late last month.

The ministry approved the terms of reference for conducting an environmental assessment of Waste Management Inc.'s proposal for the dump expansion, which calls for the new landfill to accept up to 400,000 tonnes of waste per year for 10 years.

The company said the new facility would be located on the same 142-hectare property in Ottawa's western rural outskirts where it already operates a 35-hectare landfill.

The current landfill once accepted 400,000 tonnes of waste, per year, but as it reached capacity, that amount was reduced to 25,000 tonnes per year. Excess waste is redirected to facilities in the state of New York. The proposed replacement landfill would be 36 hectares in size and reach a height of 25 metres.

Ministry officials said this first approval sets in motion the next steps for the Environmental Assessment process, which will include more public consultation. Final approvals for the project are still months away, the ministry said.

Waste Management welcomes the funding for community groups, even if some of it goes to groups fighting against its dump.

"All said and done if what comes out of this is a better understanding of what our proposal is, I think it's a positive thing," said Ross Wallace, site manager for the Carp Road site.