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Half a century of garbage

The Vancouver landfill, which continues to evolve, will be around for years to come
landfill

It certainly isn't attractive, and many view it as outdated, but it's going to be part of Delta's landscape for a couple more decades. Located smack in the centre of the municipality, the Vancouver Landfill is marking its 50th anniversary this year. As the community around it has grown and changed over the last half century, the landfill has also had its operations evolve, including seeing much less garbage being dumped now that "Zero Waste " initiatives are in full force. Operated by the City of Vancouver, the landfill has had its share of controversy, especially in the early years when it came to an awful stench.

"It's a good thing cows don't fly," one Ladner resident told Delta council a month after the landfill opened, complaining about not only the smell but the thousands of seagulls flying over her house. Even civic politicians were upset, complaining the mountains of garbage were an eyesore and that Vancouver wasn't living up to its responsibilities in properly covering material as well not dealing with people dumping large loads of trash outside the site.

Things have changed considerably since then and complaints, as well as controversies, are now few and far between. The idea of using Burns Bog as a landfill surfaced in 1961 when a private company tried to get permission to develop a dump in the Sunbury area of North Delta. Residents objected, expressing fears about smells, vermin, polluted water, smoke and dust. Another private company also tried to locate there but was turned down. Later that year, however, Delta council agreed on the use of a different area the bog as a sanitary landfill.

There was little, if any, backlash to the idea. The following year, Reeve Clarence Taylor, noting many meetings had been held with Vancouver engineers as well as experts from the U.S. and Canada, said the disposal of refuse in a landfill would solve Delta's garbage problems, clear an unsightly and unsanitary incinerator from North Delta, and provide approximately 400 hectares (1,000 acres) of reclaimed land to Delta once landfill operations had ceased. Delta's garbage would be accepted and covered for free and only refuse from Vancouver and Delta would be accepted, unless both parties agreed otherwise. The 1962 deal would see the municipality receive $20,000 a year from Vancouver to cover taxes, permits, licences, maintenance of roads used by Vancouver, royalties and other incidental expenses. Once completed, the change in elevation would not be more than six metres (20 feet), while the land reportedly would be transformed into recreational areas, airstrips or parks.

The landfill opened on Jan. 1, 1966. That original agreement was for a term of 20 years and saw about 12 hectares (30 acres) filled annually. In 1999, Vancouver and Delta entered into a new long-term agreement whereby the operational life was extended to 2037. Garbage would be permitted to be piled higher on the existing footprint.

In return, Delta would get increased royalties as well as preserve hectares of bog land. The landfill is now also used by Richmond, White Rock, the University Endowment Lands and parts of South Surrey. Move ahead a few more years and ambitious regional waste diversion targets, which have introduced a ban on the disposal of food scraps and expanded the list of items for curbside recycling, have sharply reduced the amount of trash that ends up in the landfill, although the closure date remains unchanged. A phased closure plan is already well underway, starting with the most eastern section of the landfill, a 14-hectare (35-acre) area called Phase 1, which reached capacity in 2006 at a maximum filling height of 39 metres (128 feet). Due to settlement occurring, additional waste was placed on the section before it was declared completely full. The area was then covered with a plastic membrane and soil. Eighteen additional gas collection wells as well as flares were also installed. The idea is to eventually have the entire landfill covered and looking like a natural area once more, at least on the surface.

Vancouver's 2015 annual report on the landfill notes it's authorized to accept up to 750,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste for disposal each year. In 2015, 382,711 tonnes of municipal solid waste and 124,044 tonnes of demolition waste were accepted for a total of 506,755 tonnes, well below the authorized limit. Some of the other waste currently accepted includes drinking water treatment plant residuals from the Seymour Capilano Filtration Plant, a total of 7,050 tonnes of asbestos waste from commercial and residential customers, 124,044 tonnes of demolition material, thousands of tonnes of grit, sludge and scum screenings, as well as excavation material generated by sewer, water and street construction, while bottom ash from the Burnaby waste incinerator facility is also stockpiled. Vancouver recently commissioned a study to look at the composition of demolition and construction waste with the goal of finding opportunities to recover and recycle components. Vancouver has operated a landfill gas collection and flare system since 1991.

The system was initially installed to control odour and had the added benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, landfill gas is extracted by 339 vertical wells and 25 horizontal collectors and used to generate electricity for sale to B.C. Hydro and heat for the nearby Village Farms greenhouse. A small portion is also used to heat the landfill administration buildings. Excess gas is burned by on-site flares to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. Approximately 60 million cubic metres of landfill gas were collected and destroyed in 2015, which is equivalent to the emissions of approximately 101,000 vehicles, according to the City of Vancouver.

Five years ago, Delta and Vancouver established a technical liaison committee in response to concerns regarding those gas emissions. The committee was recently told that for March 2016, overall landfill gas collection efficiency was 69 per cent. The overall efficiency for 2015 was 71 per cent, a significant improvement from the 47 per cent efficiency in 2010. For 2016, additional landfill gas collection infrastructure will be installed with the goal of meeting a target of 75 per cent.

Since 2010, approximately $48 million has been spent on landfill gas collection and progressive closure works. The current capital plan for closure and other associated work over the next three years is $42 million, however, there is still a large quantity of methane that's not collected, equating to 206,048 tonnes of carbon dioxide or approximately 41,200 vehicles. Not around when it originally opened, mainly because waste diversion and recycling weren't issues at that time, there's also an on-site transfer station that offers recycling for large items not typically included in curbside collection programs, such as mattresses, drywall, scrap metal, white goods, batteries, tires and more.

Vancouver also expanded the collection to include all forms of packaging and printed paper covered by a new provincial stewardship program. Since 1995, the landfill has also operated a composting facility for yard trimmings as a means to divert a significant tonnage of organics from disposal. Asked recently at a Delta council meeting if Vancouver would consider adding a more extensive multi-purpose recycling facility, Delta CAO George Harvie noted a report will be coming on that topic later this year.

"We are setting up further meetings with the City of Vancouver, and at the appropriate time with Metro Vancouver, and then need to come back with a report to council," he said. As far as less trash finding its way to the landfill, Harvie said, "It's something we keep striving for again, to have the amount of refuse from this day on until the closure, which is required in 2037, to be as minimal as possible."

With the impending closure of the Cache Creek Landfill, it's expected Vancouver will be hauling approximately 55,000 tonnes of additional waste to Delta. However, the Vancouver Landfill could see even less trash in the next few years if Metro Vancouver goes ahead with a regional wasteto-energy incinerator. Ironically, that controversial plan has been stalled due to the success of recycling programs and declining trash volumes, although the regional district still hasn't ruled it out. "The Vancouver Landfill would continue to operate to absorb residuals from the waste-to-energy plants and as an emergency system in the event that the waste-to-energy plants cannot absorb waste flows.

Although garbage volumes are declining, the Vancouver Landfill is scheduled to remain open until 2037. The waste-to-energy incinerator facility in Burnaby would be decommissioned or converted to alternate fuels and the new waste-to-energy facilities would be progressively downscaled or converted to alternate fuels as waste flows decline ," according to the district. While reducing even more trash in the landfill may be seen as positive, waste-to-energy has drawn intense criticism.

"If Metro Vancouver goes ahead with this plan, garbage incineration plants in the region's neighbourhoods will be the biggest source of climate changing pollution in the Lower Mainland, creating a total of approximately one million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year ," said Wilderness Committee campaigner Ben West at a regional waste committee meeting. Also opposed is the David Suzuki Foundation, noting that turning unsorted and usable trash into a valuable fuel commodity means communities are less likely to choose to reduce, reuse and recycle. "We toss out lots of items that can be reused, repaired or altered for other purposes. As for recycling, we've made great strides, but we still send close to three-quarters of our household waste to the landfill," David Suzuki wrote on the group's website.