City Spending Over $150,000 To Comply With Regulations

Provincial regulatory requirements for the landfill will see the City of Moose Jaw forced to spend over $150,00 to comply, the price of not complying would not be nice.

That is what Budget Commitee was told when three initiatives were presented to them on Wednesday night. The initiatives must be undertaken to comply with Provincial regulations.

As part of that 2017 audit the Province found deficiencies which included the City not covering the landfill properly and the leachate leak. The Province at that time issued a six month permit to continue to operate the landfill.

The first required initiative would cost $50,000 in order to do an analysis of a leachate leak at the landfill. Leachate is the liquid produced from landfill when it decomposes and organic matter breaks down.

The second initiative requires the City to buy 10 additional portable wind fences for $90,000.

The wind fences can be moved to the dumping area at the landfill and catch blowing debris such as plastic bags.

City Works Manager Darrin Stephanson told Budget Committee the City tries to reduce the risk of waste blowing out of the landfill site through regular application of landfill material and confine work to a smaller area.

The third required initiative is the drilling of a ground water monitoring well for $17,500.

There are 15 ground water monitoring wells at the landfill which are regularly monitored for contaminants such as heavy metals out of the landfill site and into ground water, Stephanson said.

One well is required to replace one not operational for a number of years, Stephanson said.

The total cost of the three required initiatives is $157,500 and will come from the Landfill Reserve Fund.