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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 2018-03-01, Page 26PAGE 26. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2018. Central Huron works to find landfill alternative By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen The impending closure of the Mid -Huron Landfill later this year has Central Huron Council scramb- ling for an alternative to ensure its residents' waste will have a home. Chief Administrative Officer Steve Doherty raised the issue at council's Feb. 20 meeting, reminding councillors of the landfill's June 30 closure date and the challenges the municipality has encountered in getting the word out. Because the municipality has made its waste management system voluntary, some residents pay into their taxes for collection of garbage and recycling, while others handle it on their own, taking their waste to the Mid -Huron Landfill when they need to. Central Huron has said it needs to make it clear that will no longer be an option after June 30. Councillor Alison Lobb noted the detailed report commissioned by Central Huron, Huron East and Goderich, all users of the landfill, saying that a number of recommendations have been laid out in regards to various aspects of the landfill closing. One suggestion made that night was making collection of garbage and recycling a mandatory service throughout Central Huron. Lobb warned against that, however, saying that the consultant's report urged against making anything mandatory. Doherty said that the report suggested keeping service from the Bluewater Recycling Association (BRA) voluntary and clearly communicating that taking waste to the Mid -Huron Landfill beyond June 30 was not an option. He said that basically the municipality just needed to communicate with users of the landfill, saying that if they have a system in place that involves the Mid -Huron Landfill, that system is in jeopardy. There has been talk of reclaiming the landfill in a variety of ways, however, but Mayor Jim Ginn said that they were proving to be cost - prohibitive. Turning the landfill into a transfer station where waste could be dumped and then transferred to an operational landfill, Ginn said, won't work. He said that waste would have to either be pre-sorted ahead of being dropped off or dropped off and sorted at the site, because there won't be employees at the site to sort waste for customers. To reclaim the site, Ginn said, would cost millions and would require the construction of a waste storage building and the installation of a tipping floor. In order to accommodate those costs, Doherty said, tipping fees would have to be raised so high that the consultant felt the landfill would price itself out of business. And if the site was found not to be in compliance with government regulations, Lobb said it would be shut down. If the site continued to operate as a de facto transfer station or landfill site without being authorized as such and without the proper equipment, it wouldn't last long, she said. Ginn said that without a local solution for the landfill, the closest site for residents that could be used like the Mid -Huron Landfill would be in Watford, which is over 60 kilometres west of London and over 90 kilometres away from Clinton. Councillor Alex Westerhout said he'd like to hear input from some of the municipality's local waste collectors to know what they think, the options they're considering and the cost they'd be willing to pay to have a local landfill. Lobb said that while none of the local haulers were at the meeting to discuss the issue, they have been consulted every step of the way throughout the closure process. 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The Citizen Call Us Today For Details 519-523-4792 or 519-887-9114 I \ Fax: 519-523-9140 next steps, Ginn said there will have to be some sort of stop -gap system in place to serve residents even if Central Huron goes to mandatory, municipality -wide co -collection with BRA. Ginn said that BRA will have to have additional trucks built to handle the heightened workload and that work will take at least nine months to complete. Central Huron will have to come up with a plan for waste until BRA is ready to serve the entire municipality, if that's the route council chooses to take. Doherty said that currently, 57 per cent of the municipality's residents use Central Huron's wheelie bin system through BRA. With the closure of the landfill, he estimates that number will rise to 80 per cent. 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