Squamish will need Whistler’s garbage if the community is to follow through on plans for a multi-million dollar upgrade and expansion to its landfill.
And it just so happens that Whistler is looking for a place to put its garbage in the near future.
If the two towns can reach an agreement, Squamish could be home to the Sea to Sky Regional Landfill – an option that may be the most cost effective for both communities.
"It’s clear that if we go it on our own it’s going to be much more expensive to provide services to our community for garbage," said Acting Squamish Mayor Sonja Lebans.
"But if we perhaps can develop a regional system that would allow us to do the work that we have to do in terms of liners and leachate and all the rest, we could do it with a shared cost. We could spread the cost around a bit."
At a July meeting, Squamish council unanimously approved in principle the extension and expansion of their landfill to a regional landfill.
It’s the first step to solving a longstanding problem for Squamish about the future of its landfill.
The province has given Squamish two exemptions already, allowing the landfill to operate at standards far below the provincial requirements.
Currently the landfill, which is located in the north end of Squamish near Alice Lake, is operating without a clay or geomembrane liner, a leachate treatment system, a monitoring network, or an electric bear fence.
Those requirements will cost millions and time is fast running out as the current Squamish landfill permit runs out in 2008.
But now Squamish sees a way to solve its problems, by taking in Whistler’s garbage.
This summer Whistler council approved the development of the 2010 Olympic athletes village in the Lower Cheakamus, a stone’s throw away from Whistler’s landfill.
That decision marked the end of the landfill’s days. Now it could close down as early as next year.
Taking its garbage to a regional landfill, only 50 kilometres down the highway, could be the cheapest option for Whistler. It could also be the cheapest option for Squamish.
Dr. Tony Sperling, president of Sperling Hansen Associates, presented compelling numbers to Squamish council backing up his recommendation to pursue a regional landfill.
Of several options available to Squamish, among them exporting their garbage elsewhere and expanding to accommodate just their own garbage, the regional landfill option is the most economically feasible.
Rough estimates from Sperling show that Squamish would pay roughly $46 per tonne to dump its garbage under the regional landfill scenario. This cost roughly doubles in the scenario where Squamish expands its landfill just for its own garbage, and would rise to $122 per tonne if Squamish were to export their waste.
Squamish can operate a regional landfill more efficiently, said Sperling, because of the economies of scale.
"The operating costs of the landfill could basically be shared by two communities and so the one compactor, that you have to have no matter what, would basically be shared by both communities, so you can cut your operating costs almost in half," he said.
"That’s the real benefit of attracting Whistler."
But the economics work both ways.
Whistler could pay $128 per tonne if it trucks its waste to Cache Creek in the Interior. Going to Squamish could represent a savings of more than $10 per tonne. That’s basically the difference in the cost of trucking the garbage, explained Sperling.
Whistler currently pays $120 per tonne at its own landfill to subsidize recycling programs.
Sperling cautioned Squamish against making a profit off of Whistler’s garbage.
"Whistler will have extra costs already," said Sperling.
"They have to build their transfer station and man it and operate all that. In addition to that they have to pay several million dollars again for capping their landfill, which is a big capital cost, and then the trucking. So they’re already getting hit with a lot of extras. And so I would really encourage Squamish, and I tried to do that in my presentation, not to look at… additional revenue from Whistler for receiving the waste.
"…They shouldn’t try and make extra profit on the fact that the waste would go to the regional landfill because if you do that then you’re going to drive Whistler’s costs up to a point where it’ll become attractive for them to go to Cache Creek."
Originally Whistler had been interested in trucking its waste to the Interior because the dry climate was more suitable for landfills, as opposed to the wet climate in the Sea to Sky corridor.
Sperling agrees that the general rule of thumb is it’s better to put garbage in a dry area.
But if the landfill has a good leachate collection system, then wet climates can be as good as dry.
The other element he said is cost. Squamish would pay more than double to truck its garbage elsewhere compared to the regional landfill option.
"Even though I feel that it would probably be somewhat better for the environment to put the waste where it’s dry, I think we could do a whole lot of other better things for the environment with the money and just do a good job on the leachate management," said Sperling.
"I think it’s a matter of setting priorities for the limited amount of financial resources that are available."
The challenge, said David Allen, manager of utilities and community services with the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, is balancing the environmental and economic costs and coming up with the most sustainable option.
"My own view, and it’s a personal view, is that it’s the preferred solution to deal with your own waste within your own region if you can do that," he said.
"That’s sort of higher up the environmental ladder I think than shipping it to another region."
The fact that the garbage in the corridor now has less organic waste, due to the diversion of organics to Carney’s new composting facility, is another plus said Allen.
Organics he explained create a lot of the leachate problems in landfills.
More and more organic material is expected to be diverted from the regional waste stream.
Whistler’s General Manager of Engineering and Public Works was not available for comment this week.
In an earlier interview with Pique Newsmagazine, Brian Barnett said Whistler would be interested in a Squamish landfill that was up to provincial codes.
"Obviously it would be better to keep the money in the corridor from a sustainability perspective, but we’ll have to see what they come up with for their site," he said.
The two communities must decide if the regional landfill option is the best option for them.
The SLRD will also have a say in any plans to export garbage from the region. A public consultation period is also part of the process.
