Otter Lake landfill limits spark concerns over possible sites
Paul Withers | CBC News | Posted: May 19, 2016 9:10 PM | Last Updated: May 19, 2016
'I'll chain myself to a bulldozer,' says councillor against any landfill in his district
Limits on the size of Halifax's existing landfill have reignited the question of where to put the region's garbage — and one councillor is ready to protest it.
"I'll chain myself to a bulldozer if I have to make sure this does not happen in St. Margarets Bay," Matt Whitman, the councillor for Hammonds Plains - St. Margarets, told CBC News Thursday.
Halifax is prohibited from from expanding its landfill in Otter Lake near Timberlea after a private member's bill passed at the behest of Timberlea - Prospect MLA Iain Rankin.
The legislation prevents the municipality from increasing the height of landfill cells at Otter Lake to extend its life.
Speculation 'not helpful'
Whitman said he wished NDP MLA Denise Peterson-Rafuse had moved for protections similar to those of Rankin, back when the NDP was in power.
Peterson-Rafuse, who is on medical leave, represents Chester-St.Margaret's in the legislature. She noted by email late Thursday afternoon that there is no proposal for a landfill in her riding, and that there were none when the NDP was in government.
"Matt Whitman's speculation on this issue is not helpful for our community and he seems very ill-informed on the issue," Peterson-Rafuse said in the email.
"In fact, those lands were part of the Bowater lands that the NDP bought back for the people of Nova Scotia."
St. Margarets Bay second choice
Halifax solid waste manager Matt Keliher told council this week the Head of St Margarets Bay was identified as the only other location that met provincial "technical requirements" when Otter Lake was chosen in the mid-1990s.
Back then, the St. Margarets Bay land was owned by the Bowater Mersey pulp mill company. Keliher suggested it appears to be a more attractive location now.
"The land is now owned by the province and the province is in the process of constructing a new interchange between exit 5 and 6, which would make it easier to access that piece of property," said Keliher.
But that's not a given.
Decision not imminent
The Otter Lake site still has anywhere from 18 years to 50 years of useful life, depending on garbage volumes, said Keliher.
Keliher also told CBC News that St. Margarets Bay may or may not meet today's provincial requirements.
Mayor Mike Savage said the prospect of picking a new landfill isn't imminent. He said there was concern the region would be looking for a new landfill location next year, but now he said it looks like that won't be needed within the next decade.
"I got to think in 10 to 15 years there will be some other technology to deal with waste," said Savage.
'It won't be the Bay'
Although Whitman acknowledges it may be 18 years — or much longer — before the city needs a new landfill, he says St. Margarets Bay being a "runner up" location is a cause for concern.
"Hopefully, I'll be around for 18 more years. It won't be the Bay — I won't allow it," Whitman told CBC News.
"I will work with my colleagues not to allow it. I'd rather have the garbage go outside HRM than go to St. Margarets Bay."
NIMBY: 'Proud to say it'
Whitman, up for re-election this fall, said the "pristine" former Bowater Mersey lands are not an appropriate place for a landfill.
"This is NIMBY: not in my backyard. I'm proud to say it," he said.
MLA unapologetic
Rankin's bill has touched off a fit of pique in council, at which the provincial Liberals were accused of short circuiting municipal waste management.
The Liberal MLA says he's unapologetic, and that he was holding both levels of government to promises made when Otter Lake was first picked.
"The community accepted the landfill based on [a lifespan of] 25 years," Rankin told CBC News.
"Even with this bill, they won't have to look for a new landfill site well into decades in to the future. I think there are other opportunities to find waste solutions. There might not ever need [to] be another landfill site."
Premier Stephen McNeil also rejected claims of provincial interference.
"The member who represents that riding wanted to make sure what was committed to that community was adhered to," he said outside the legislature Thursday.
"That's all that bill does."