Iqaluit landfill's smoky 'burn box' kindles memories of dumpcano
'There was this terrible smell again,' says city resident
Smoke from a 'burn box' at the Iqaluit landfill that diverts combustible waste to reduce the chance of another dump fire is bringing back bad memories of last year's dumpcano for some residents.
"There was this terrible smell again," says city resident Francois Fortin. "Reminds me of a frightening past."
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Fortin says the smoke looks and smells like the emanations of last year's prolonged landfill fire — dubbed a 'dumpcano' after the city's fire chief compared it to a volcano of smouldering garbage.
Plumes of smoke wafted over the city for months before firefighters finally doused the fire in September.
When the city first bought the burn box, the plan was to use it only when the wind was blowing away from the city, towards Frobisher Bay. But then the cardboard started to pile up again, and that plan was tossed on the heap.
"We're now under the directive that we're going to be burning regardless of wind direction," says Jeff MacMunn, foreman at the landfill site.
The burn box is now in use 13 hours a day, according to the city. MacMunn says the unit is especially smoky these days because a lot of the material is soggy.
"The cardboard pack is full of snow, so we weren't achieving a really great burn," says MacMunn. "It'll take time but we are moving forward."
Not everyone is convinced the burn box is worth the effort.
"When it's burning in town all the time when the wind is there, we could smell it," says Fortin, "it was horrible."
"I don't think that burning stuff is the good solution here anyway."