South Marysburgh landfill considered for hazardous waste site

The South Marysburgh landfill site is being considered for a new household hazardous waste collection site and electronic waste depot, as council, at Thursday’s committee of the whole meeting, voted to begin the consultation process.

Adam Goheen, director of operations with the municipality noted council had directed staff to look into the establishment of a fixed household hazardous waste and electronic waste depot, to establish the viability of a depot and evaluate potential sites.

Council agreed to have municipal staff work with Quinte Waste Solutions to engage the Ministry of the Environment Conservation and Parks in a pre-consultation regarding the acceptance of household hazardous waste at the South Marysburgh landfill.

Staff will also proceed to work with Quinte Waste Solutions to prepare an environmental compliance approval amendment needed to allow acceptance of household hazardous waste at the site.

In his report to council, Albert Paschkowiak, the municipality’s environmental services and sustainability supervisor, said a review of potential locations had been undertaken and the preferred recommendationis South Maryburgh, located at 1132 Old Milford Road, north of Milford, rather than developing a new site.

The rationale for using the existing site included the limited availability of appropriate municipally-owned properties within the central portion of the County. It is already zoned waste disposal industrial and the proposed use would not be a drastic change from its current use, and the site is already authorized to collect electronic waste.

Further, the closest residence is located approximately 600 meters to the north.

Councillor Phil Prinzen said he worried about it being in South Marysburgh because the site wasn’t central.

“Why is this the best spot, because it would be quicker to go to Belleville?” asked Prinzen.

Paschkowiak said the rationale for selecting the site was to focus on the central corridor settlement areas and the south, and to avoid any overlaps.

“We looked at all property owned by the municipality in those areas, many are surrounded by Environmental Protection areas or watershed that would make it difficult to put those facilities in.”

He also noted that many of these sites are not zoned to accept material and South Marysburgh is already licensed to accept waste.

Councillor John Hirsch noted the issue of roadside dumping, which is prevalent in the south shore area, will be seriously helped by this happening.

Councillor Mike Harper, also a Quinte Waste Solutions board member, said this would help solve a problem, noting the site would also add oil and e-waste.

“The key thing to point out is this may impact roadside dumping, having something more consistent, preventing folks from just dumping this material anywhere in the County,” said Paschkowiak.

As part of the municipality’s evaluation, identifying potential suitable locations on municipal property were based on location, size, current zoning, site specific limitations, and adjacent property use and were ranked based on suitability.

“Sites located in the northern portion of the County were not considered so as to avoid duplication of the Belleville depot’s coverage area,” he added.

Prince Edward County is one of nine municipalities that contributes to Quinte Waste Solutions diversion programs.

These programs include recycling collection, processing, marketing, and household hazardous and electronic waste collection and disposal.

Paschkowiak noted that Quite Waste Solutions currently coordinates mobile hazardous and electronic waste collection events in Prince Edward County four times a year at the Sandy Hook works yard.

“Establishing a permanent hazardous electronic depot would provide for some consistency in collection, and may reduce the instances of roadside dumping involving household hazardous waste and e-waste.”

In March 2022, Quinte Waste Solutions made a presentation to council regarding the construction of a permanent medium-sized hazardous and electronic waste depot in Prince Edward County.

“Quinte Waste Solutions reported that 16 per cent use per capita for Belleville versus nine per cent for Prince Edward County residents, indicating there may be material that is not being captured,” said Paschkowiak.

“Quinte Waste Solutions staff also reported that a consistent site improves participation in the program, and ultimately keeps material out of the landfills, and away from roadsides.”

Councillor Brad Nieman questioned the numbers and asked if the 16 per cent coming from Belleville and the nine per cent coming from the County were accurate figures because of the 16 per cent, it was noted many were coming from the north end of the County.

“Those numbers, which are provided by Quinte Waste Solutions, are per capita, where residents coming to the facility indicate where they are living,” explained Paschkowiak. “The nine per cent would indicate that less individuals from the County are disposing of their waste compared to Belleville.”

He confirmed the numbers refer to hazardous waste, and don’t refer to electronic waste.

Presently, Belleville is the only member of Quinte Waste Solutions that has a physical hazardous waste depot, but they also maintain an e-waste bin in Trenton. All other member municipalities receive mobile events, the number of which is based on population.

Currently, e-waste collection is conducted by community volunteers and is held at Home Hardware in Picton where the fundraising program currently raises approximately $1,900 per event – supporting the County’s hospital.

The impacts of community fundraising activities were raised in Paschkowiak’s report since several community groups have held e-waste collection fundraisers over the last 10 years generating over $130,000 in charitable donations.

“Mr. Busscher, owner of Home Hardware in Picton, has indicated that he wishes to transition away from providing the events and is in support of a permanent location hosted by the municipality and managed by Quinte Waste Solutions,” said Paschkowiak.

“Establishing a permanent household hazardous waste depot operated by Quinte Waste Solutions would not prevent the current fundraising efforts from continuing, nor would it exclude new charities from pursuing their own event,” he added.

Nieman raised the point about service groups continuing to have their own events to raise money for charities.

“Can we have in the agreement that Quinte Waste Solutions donate to a charity three or four times a year that would want that event, but have no place to hold it?” Nieman asked.

Paschkowiak noted that Quinte Waste Solutions has identified that if there are donations coming from that waste stream going to charities, there would be an additional cost to the municipality to offset since it is a cost-sharing model with all members of the organization.

Paschkowiak confirmed this was an alternative option if council wanted to adopt it, but it isn’t staff’s recommendation.

“If they do that, then the tax payers are still paying for that portion of that’s day collection, that doesn’t seem quite right,” added Nieman.

Paschkowiak reminded there is opportunity for those organizations to do their own events outside of Quinte Waste Solutions.

“Those funds could be directed wherever they deemed fit which would have no impact on Quinte Waste Solutions,” he said. “Quinte Waste Solutions offering the service at the same time would provide more stability as there would be collections on a regular basis, and still wouldn’t infringe upon the other abilities to collect.”

Since the process began in the spring, Quite Waste Solutions provided requirements for the construction of various sizes of hazardous and electronic waste facilities, where the recommendation is for a medium-sized depot to be located centrally within the County.

That option that would consist of two shipping containers, a containment berm (used for oil storage tanks), and an e-waste bin.

“The site would be equipped with an asphalt pad and a berm to prevent potential impacts to the natural environment.”

“The site would be equipped with tanks to receive used motor oil, which is not a service provided by the current program,” noted Paschkowiak.

The facility would require an approximate footprint between 1,700 m3 (0.42 acres) and 2,300 m3 (0.57 acres).

The proposed site would be open three to four days a week between May and August, for a total of 420 operating hours. Materials would be removed from the site either weekly or bi-weekly.

As for the cost of the project, the report says Quinte Waste Solutions report an additional $114,942 (beyond the $28,400 transferred to Quinte Waste Solutions by Prince Edward County in 2003) would be required to construct the hazardous and electronic waste facility and an annual cost of $145,467 would be required to operate it.

Prince Edward County currently contributes approximately $660,000 to the diversion programs operated by Quinte Waste Solutions.

Prince Edward County’s cost for the blue box and hazardous and electronic waste collection are directly proportional to the amount of blue box materials recovered in Prince Edward County as a percentage of the total amount of blue box materials recovered across all member municipalities.

“For example, Prince Edward County generates approximately 22 per cent of the recycling material collected by all municipal members, and pays 22 per cent of the blue box and 22 per cent of the hazardous and electronic costs.”

Paschkowiak stated in his report that projected construction and operations costs for the hazardous and electronic waste facility would be shared among member municipalities as per the existing cost-sharing model.

“Prince Edward County would be responsible for a one-time payment of $25,287 for construction, and an on-going annual levy increase of $32,005 for operations,” he said. “These costs would be incurred as part of the 2024 levy when the facility would begin operations.“

Quinte Waste Solutions anticipates site operations could begin as early as 2024 once all appropriate consultations have been undertaken.