Much was made during recent budget deliberations about the unexpected doubling of the cost for the City of Orillia’s waste collection contract for 2020-2021.
The contract essentially doubled, from just over $1 million to just over $2 million.
However, there was almost zero debate and very little discussion about an even more costly waste-related expenditure found within this year’s budget documents.
In 2020, the City of Orillia will spend $3.4 million to cap two tracts of land, or cells, at the municipal waste diversion site on Kitchener Street.
Staff will be asking for an additional $2 million be spent to cap two more cells in 2021.
It appears the city does not have much choice about these costs.
In 2009, the Ministry of the Environment — now the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) — conducted a detailed inspection of the city’s waste diversion site.
Based on that study and follow-up discussions, they asked the city to begin planning to cap the landfill site, among other measures, noted a staff report tabled during budget discussions.
The plan calls for the installation of an engineered cap on the closed portion of the site, including those four cells. There are a total of 12 cells on site.
The report notes “stormwater controls are also planned around these cells through the construction of an elevated perimeter access road with controlled drainage facilities.”
In 2019, the city contracted SLR to oversee the receipt of the clean fill and topsoil from the west Orillia employment land that is needed for this project.
That work was delayed until the coming spring and may save the city up to $600,000 in “avoided fill costs for capping the four cells.”
SLR completed a migratory bird and species at risk pre-construction screening study in 2019 confirming there are no issues.
However, the general contractor hired to install the final capping will need to follow up with a confirmation study prior to any site clearing and grubbing work that occurs between March 30 and July 30 for the landfill cap construction.
Coun. Tim Lauer asked for details about the capping process and if, upon completion of the project, citizens could “walk on” the land.
“Capping really is a containment technology that provides a barrier … to protect humans and the environment from the potential harmful media below (garbage),” said Andrew Schell, the city’s director of environmental services and operations department.
He said the “geotextile membrane is more or less thick plastic.” He likened it to a “very thick garbage bag” that would cover the cell.
Soil, he explained, would be dumped on top of the membrane in addition to gravel, which would “allow stormwater to run off and, ultimately, for grass to grow and remediate the site.”
He said the barrier also will help stop “water infiltration because there is a potential (for) migration of contaminants.”
While citizens could safely walk on the capped cell, the city would not allow that as the property would be fenced, similar to other closed portions of the site, Schell explained.
Lauer asked if all 12 cells were capped, could the municipality “take down the fence and walk away” from the site.
“Yes,” Schell answered. “But we will mostly likely still have potential for gas migration, so we may have to have future venting and, obviously, we’d have to monitor the site.”
He noted other municipalities have transformed old waste diversion sites into other things; he referenced a golf course in Brampton that is on a former landfill.
Schell said staff have contemplated a partial or phased closure of the landfill site, noting only cells that have been used to store garbage have to be capped.
He said the goal is to, over time, use the Kitchener Street site for diversion only, but, for now, it’s still needed for garbage and other waste.
