Trash Talk series

8/7/2019 Trash Talk series

1/13

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by Jef Nagel

M etro Vancouver claims a new garbage incin-erator can be built here that would create nonet increase in air pollution in the sensitiveand constrained airshed downwind in theFraser Valley.Its the regions pre erred solution to dispose o waste that

cant otherwise be recycled or diverted, in part because theelectricity and heat generated could be worth hundreds o millions o dollars over the long run.

Burning garbage without creating more pollution at frstglance seems implausible, and will be hotly disputed whenthe proposed solid waste management plan goes to public

hearings next month.But Metro says the new waste-to-

energy plant would pipe steam orhot water to a nearby cluster o otherbuildings or industries, eliminatingthe need or them to have their ownboilers burning uel.

Te idea is not outlandish toexperts even those critical o Met-ros incineration plans who agreeits likely emissions avoided throughdistrict heating could o set much o the smog-producing contaminants

rom burning garbage. Numerouswaste-to-energy plants operate thatway in Europe, in the heart o citieslike Paris and Copenhagen.

Te local model is Metros existingWaste- o-Energy Facility in southBurnaby. Besides generating electric-ity or BC Hydro, it captures residualheat that is turned into steam andpiped next door to power the adja-cent Norampac paper mill, which nolonger burns natural gas.

Tose are avoided emissions,said Metro planner Ken Carrusca.Teres no fction here.

Its not an ideal scenario, however. Te mill has struggledin recent years, shutting down two o three lines, so Metrosburner sells only one-third as much steam as be ore.

Metros

burning question

See INCINERATION / Page 4

by Sheila Reynolds

DESPITE THEact there will be nearly 1,300 new students entering Surrey schools in the all, the district is plan-ning on hiring just fve new teachers inthe coming school year.

Tis is considerably below thesta ng increase that would be in placei we were able to maintain the currentservice levels, Supt. Mike McKay wrote in a sta memo earlier thismonth about the districts di cultoperating budgetdecisions as itaddresses an antici-pated $12.3-millionshort all.

Instead o hiring dozens o additional newteachers, existingspecialist teacherssuch as counsellors,librarians, careereducators and members o learnersupport teams will be brought out o their specialty areas and reassignedas classroom teachers.

According to the Surrey eachersAssociation (S A), the shi ing o teachers will result in 10 ewer counsellors, eight ewer teacher-librariansand 13 ewer learner support teamteachers.

Te sta shu es are estimated to

Surrey school

staf cut,

shu ed tosave $12M

MARIO BARTEL / BLACK PRESS

A garbage truck enters Burnabys waste-to-energy incinerator. MetroVancouver is exploring the idea of building more such facilities aspart of its regional trash management plan.

Could a new waste incineratoractually reduce air pollution?

Specialty teacherswill be shifted to

regular classrooms

Baseball scouts eyepro prospects

page 31

Festival of Dancein picturespage 35

Friday April 30, 2010Serving Surrey and North Delta

www.surreyleader.com

Editorial 6 Letters 7 Sports 31 Arts 35 People 38 Classieds 41 Save time,save money.

Mike McKay

A Black Pressspecial series

examinesthe issues

surrounding theregions wastemanagement

plans

TRASHTRASH TALKTALK

See STA / Page 3

SHOULD METRO VANCOUVERS garbage be buried,burned or better recycled? Can incineration turn wasteinto valuable energy? Afer decades o dumping trashin the B.C. Interior, is it acceptable to truck it inland, toVancouver Island or even to the U.S.? Could we dramati-cally increase our current recycling rates?

A Black Press special series on the regions waste man-agement plans will explore these and other issues in theweeks ahead.


2/13

FridayApril 30 2010 Surrey North Delta Lead

MARIO BARTEL / BLACK PRESS

waste-to-energy incinerator in Burnaby feeds electricity into the power grid, as well as providing energy to a nearby paper plant.

Incineration: Justhow toxic is it?

A new waste incinerator optimally placed in thecentre o a new development perhaps a group o of ce and condo towers in Surreys trans ormingCity Centre could make better and more ef cientuse o the heat generated.

But Metros numbers on o setting emissions areraught with uncertainty.Metro assumes 50 to 90 per cent o the potential

heat can be sold.KPMG consultant Paul Levelton questions

whether district heating partners could be oundto take that much heat, in which case, the o settingequations must bedowngraded.

Nobody yet knowswhere the plant wouldbe built, or indeed i there would be onelarge or multiplesmaller burners ascenario that enhancesadvantages romdistrict heating but athigher capital costs.

And heating build-ings instead o power-ing an industry couldmean less demand insummer.

You would be able to o set the emissions, butthe question is how much, said Je rey Morris, anenvironmental economist with Sound ResourceManagement Group in Olympia, Wash.

Is there a market? And is there a district heatingsystem set up? Tats a big question that they havent

ocused on in their analysis.

Subtracting, not adding?

METROS PLANenvisions a 500,000-tonne-per-yearincinerator, nearly twice the size o the existing one,using newer European-style wet scrubbing technol-ogy that reduces measurable emissions.

For ne particulate, Metro consultants usingemission rates rom a more modern burner in Swe-den that Metros new incinerator will be modelleda er orecast such a plant would emit 4.6 tonnesper year.

Metro estimates the avoided emissions throughdistrict heating would reduce the net ne particulateemissions to -2.4 tonnes per year the air would becleaner by that measure than i the incinerator is notbuilt.

Te current Burnaby incinerator releases aboutseven tonnes o ne particulate a year, which Metrocounts as a net release o our tonnes a er the papermills avoided emissions are considered. Te regionsairshed receives 7,000 tonnes o ne particulate a

year, much o it rom cars, although there are 37other industries in the region that release more thanthe Burnaby incinerator.

Metro calculates the avoided emissions rom dis-trict heating would also make the new incineratorsnet release o nitrogen oxides (NOX) and volatileorganic compounds (VOCs) a net subtraction ratherthan an addition although 7.5 tonnes o ammoniawould be added to the air because its injected intothe wet scrubbing system.

Such comparisons do not take into account theother emissions an incinerator would create, whicharent generated by natural gas heating.

Dr. Ian McKendry, a UBC atmospheric scientistwho penned a report or the Fraser Valley Regional

District, conceded Metro may be partly right aboutthe avoided emissions.But he recommended against building an incin-

erator or any other new sources that might addcontaminants to the unique airshed, which unnelsand concentrates pollutants not just rom MetroVancouver but also northwestern Washington State.

We have to be very care ul because o the sensi-tivity o this airshed, he said, adding a precautionary approach should prevail i theres any uncertainty.

He sees a need to reduce local emission sourcesbecause more pollutants are expected to dri here

rom as ar away as Asia.McKendry said Metro also treats the emissions

as i they can be spread uni ormly across the LowerMainland, when the reality is they will be concen-trated wherever the smoke plume blows.

You can have very, very high impacts locally, hesaid, particularly within 10 kilometres.

Cancer from above

SEPARATE FROMwhether residents choke on smogis the question o whether theyll be stricken by cancer and other illness triggered by the assortmento toxins emitted rom burning garbage.

Te undamental issue here is the discom ortpeople have with the toxic substances that are emit-ted rom these things, McKendry said.

Dioxins and urans are highly toxic and persistent,so they can bio-accumulate in the ood chain and,ultimately, human bodies.

Teyre created mainly rom burning PVC vinyl,ound in a multitude o products that end up in the

garbage, rom ood bottles to building materials.Tey, along with metals like mercury and cadmium,can cause various cancers and birth de ects.

Soil and plant tests carried out or two years be ore

and a er the Burnaby incinerator was built detectedhigher readings o some metals like cadmium at testsites in Richmond, North Delta and Burnaby, and

uoride in some blueberry and cranberry crops.Researchers concluded there was no evidence

directly linking the incinerator to the soil contami-

nants, which were within regulatory levels.Despite recommendations by the consultants or

ongoing testing, a panel that included ederal andprovincial government of cials concluded that wasunnecessary.

Tere have been no urther soil tests or nearly twodecades.

Te stack tests, per ormed three times a yearby consultants to provincial speci cations, showthe existing Metro incinerator emits about 1.5milligrams o dioxins and urans per year and 2.6kilograms o mercury.

Cement plants in Delta and Richmond bothreleased signi cantly moremercury in 2008, accord-

ing to ederal pollutiondatabase reports, and 10 to30 times as much dioxin.

But the incineratorsemissions o such sub-stances are still higher thana power station burningcleaner natural gas.

Di erent pollutantsare generated in di erentamounts by those two di -

erent uels, notes Morris.A review o the emission

records or the Burnaby incinerator shows it has

become cleaner over the past 22 years, as a result o nearly $100 million Metro has spent on upgrades toboost energy generation and reduce pollution.

Stack tests show particulates in every cubic metre

o emissions released are 85 per cent below the levelso the initial years. Nitrogen oxides are down 25per cent, sulphur dioxides have been cut in hal andmercury levels are down 90 per cent.

Some critics question whether the Metro readingsare credible.

Tey point out the waste-to-energy plants stack emissions are only continuously tested or certainemissions, and not dioxin or mercury.

And burners in some areas belch out worse toxinsin upset conditions, when poorer burning materi-als are in the chamber. Te Burnaby plants policy isto burn natural gas at such times to ensure tempera-tures remain high enough to destroy most toxins.

Metro says a more detailed assessment o possiblecontamination and human health risks would come,i the plan is approved, when a speci c project isidenti ed and undergoes an environmental assess-ment.

Nanoparticles a concern

ONTARIOS ENVIRONMENTminister heard many o the same objections be ore recently overruling

Dr. Ian McKendry Dr. Perry Kendall

See GARBAGE / Page 10

From page 1

Metrossolidwasteplan: Divert 70 percent of waste byrst reducing,recycling,compostingmore materials,particularlyorganics andfood waste.Push provinceto mandatemore take-back programsrequiring businessto recoverpackagingand discardedproducts.

Build anin-regionincinerator toreplace the500,000 tonnesper year nowbeing sent tothe Cache Creeklandll.

If an in-regionincinerator cantbe built, pursuean out-of-regionone, such as theone plannedat Gold Riveron VancouverIsland by CovantaEnergy.

If neither waste-to-energy optionis possible, pursueout-of-regionlandlling, likelya major expansionof the CacheCreek landll.


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them and approvinga controversial wasteincinerator or the prov-inces Durham region.

Te regions healthof cer concluded healthrisks were minimal andacceptable.

Health Canada andBritish health authoritieshave likewise concludedhealth risks are low.

B.C. provincial healthof cer Dr. Perry Kendallsaid he has no concernsabout Metros waste-to-energy strategy, either.

Tere are technolo-gies that can remove any o the health risks, Ken-dall said. I youre doingit right, you shouldnt begetting anything harm-

ul. Youre getting water vapour and carbon diox-ide. Anything else canbe scrubbed out, gasi edand buried.

In act, the best-in-class incinerators inEurope still producesome emissions,although ar less than theburners o the past.

But British toxicologistDr. Vyvyan Howard isconcerned about con-taminants rom incinera-tors that cant presently be measured.

Teres a plumeo very ne ultra ne

particles that come outo these, he said in aninterview rom Col-eraine, England.

Howard is a leadingresearcher in the emerg-ing eld o nanoparticles extremely

ne particu-late less thana thousandththe width o ahuman hair.

Whilescrubbers arequite goodat removinglarger par-ticulate, hesays they cantstop ultra neparticles, sosmall they pass directly into thebloodstream.

Becauseo their minute size,nanoparticles collectively have more sur ace area,increasing their toxicity.

oo little is knownyet about their healthimpacts, said Howard,who urges authoritiesto err on the side o caution and reject incin-eration.

Also o growingconcern are brominatedcompounds, such asPBDE, that are used in

ame retardants andhave been linked to hor-

mone and reproductivedisruptions in variousspecies.Part o the problem isgarbage isnt like other

uel its literally amixed bag.

You dontknow whatyoure goingto be tippingin rom oneminute to thenext, How-ard said.

Te wastestream hasbecome morecomplex overthe years asmanu actur-ers inventand use moresyntheticmaterials.

Furthere ort todivert organ-

ics, paper, cardboard,and other recyclablescould leave behind agreater proportion o plastics and syntheticsthan in past decades a

uel supply that may beharder to burn cleanly.

Nor should residentsconclude metals andother toxins would dropout o the air close to theincinerator and not con-taminate more distantneighbourhoods.

Weve got data show-ing uranium dust romthe Middle East duringthe Gul War travelledas ar as the UnitedKingdom, Howard said.Many o the organiccompounds also travellong distances.

Food crops are at par-ticular risk, he said.

Te Fraser Valley,one o Canadas mostproductive tracts o arable armland, wouldbe directly downwind.

Tese compounds,once they get into any ecosystem, are going tocome back to us via our

ood. jnagel@surreyleader.

FridayApril 30 2010 Surrey North Delta Lead

Garbage: A mixed bag not like any other uel

by Jef Nagel

A NEWincinerator isnt the only way theLower Mainlands air is changing.

More people are moving to the LowerMainland and each new home built

adds more emissions to the airshed.Metro Vancouvers population isprojected to swell by 1.2 million or 50per cent over the next three decades. Itsestimated 574,000 new homes will beneeded.

Metro estimates the stack emissionsrom the new waste incinerator would

be equivalent to the heating emissions

rom 15,000 to 20,000 homes, notcounting the new residents transporta-tion emissions.

But of cials say that a er avoidedemissions are counted, the newwaste-to-energy acility would remove

emissions equivalent o 7,000 to 70,000homes, depending on the pollutant.Despite the growing population,

air quality in the region has generally improved in recent decades. A 2005regional emissions inventory projectssmog- orming pollutants will continueto decline to 2020.

jnagel@surreyleader.

From page 4

Population growthuels air pollution

NEXTFRIDAYIN THE

LEADER:Dumpingat CacheCreek

Back to thefuture?


4/13

FridayMay 7 2010 Surrey North Delta Lead

BLACK PRESS PHOTO

town of Cache Creek, with the regions landll in the background (upper right). The mayor of Cache Creek wants to seerge new landll, created next to the existing nearly full dump, that could continue taking Lower Mainland garbage for up tomore years.

WASTE LANDAn expanded Cache Creek landll is pitched as a green garbage solution

by Jef Nagel

he arid sagebrush hills o theFraser Canyon country havelong been a dumping ground orMetro Vancouvers garbage.

Since 1989, a feet o diesel trucks hashauled growing loads o Metros waste325 kilometres east to the Cache Creek regional land ll.

Te dry climate means less rain fowsthrough the garbage and less toxicleachate orms a key advantage over theVancouver Land ll in Delta.

And the locals, or the most part, dontcomplain 120 waste-handling jobsthere buoy the local economy.

Te mood has always been very sup-portive, says Cache Creek Mayor JohnRanta. Wed like to enhance the commu-nity stability by keeping those jobs.

His village is a partner in the plan tocreate a large new land ll, next to theexisting nearly ull dump, that couldcontinue taking Lower Mainland garbage

or up to 25 more years.Metro o cials once pursued the

same strategy. Tey rst tried to expandthe Cache Creek land ll in the 1990sto make room or uture waste. Butaboriginal opponents, armed with newlegal precedents, prompted the region todrop that site and in 2000 buy a ranchnear Ashcro to trans orm into the nextregional land ll.

Te cowboys and

cattle are still there the ranch keepsrunning on Metrotaxpayer subsidies.But no garbage everarrived.

Te provincere used to approvethe project a er FirstNations threatenedlegal action.

In January o 2008, a er spending$10 million and adecade pursuing anew Interior land ll,Metro abandonedthe idea andturned its sights to

a waste-to-energy incinerator to burnthe nearly 500,000tonnes o garbageper year now goingto Cache Creek.

Since then, Rantaand land ll operatorBelkorp Environ-mental Services have done what Metrocould not clear a provincial environ-mental assessment and get a green lightto build the new dump.

Tey are still not clear o aboriginalentanglements, however.

Chie Bob Pasco o the NlakapamuxNation ribal Council has three di erentcourt actions targeting the Cache Creek land ll expansion.

Te land ll proponents and environ-ment minister Barry Penner all but dis-miss Pasco his home reserve is urther

Part 2 of a BlackPress special

series examiningthe issues


plans

TRASHTRASH TALKTALK

See CRAZY / Page 13

Is landflling a waste o valuable resources or does it provide an acceptable way todispose o garbage while MetroVancouver strives to increaserecycling? Tis second installment in a Black Pressseries on waste management looks at the Cache Creek landfll and its long-term potential.


5/13

rey North Delta Leader FridayMay 7 2010 13

Crazy: o ship trashy, closer to Ashcrof, and theclosest bands have backed theland ll in exchange or jobscash.esearch commissioned by the

al council also agged possiblens coming rom the land ll,the province and Metro re utede ndings afer conductingr own study.

sts a central issue

E BIGGER ght is with Metrocouver and its claims that ain-region incinerator would

vastly cheaper or taxpayers,ks to the revenue generated

m selling electricity and heat.Metro pegs the di erence at

billion over 35 years, basedwhat it expects to pay to usenew Cache Creek land ll

mpared to its orecast that a newte-to-energy plant would break n over the same period, evenpaying o Metros $470-mil-capital investment.

Tat does not seem to passstraight- ace test or me, saysrey Morris, an Olympia, Wash.-ed environmental economist.es one o the critics who sus-s Metros calculations are tooerous or the waste-to-energy nario and too pessimistic on

ll costs.e incineration estimatesend on getting more revenuetonne o garbage than theent waste-to-energy acility urnaby by locating the newt amid a cluster o buildings

ndustries where theres more

rict heating potential.A publicly owned incineratoruld have two big advantagesr private competitors noney is diverted to private

ts and Metro can access muchaper public sector borrowing.ising uel prices in the decades

ad are a major driver o theation, according to Metroials.

While the costs o the incinera-would be xed and paid o 5 years the revenues it woulderate would increase over timeh rising energy prices.onversely, the uel to truck te to Cache Creek and operaterequired machinery there will

ome ever more expensive asgy prices rise, Metro main-s.

A KPMG analysis ound Metrosmated capital cost o a newnerator is low compared tots built elsewhere, particularly sidering it promises state-o -art pollution controls.e rm also concluded the costhe land ll and hauling waste toight total $1.2 billion over 35

years, 20 per cent lessthan Metros estimate.

Belkorp Environ-mental president edRattray puts the costso land lling at CacheCreek even lower, at$750 million over the35 years.

Tey simply havent been able tosubstantiate theirnumbers, he said.

One knock againstwaste-to-energy plants is the high up-

ront cost o buildingthem means therespressure to eed themas much as possible,rather than reducegarbage or recyclemore.

Jordan Best, apolicy analyst withthe Recycling Councilo B.C., says the samesituation can apply toland lls, which ofeninsist on the sameput or pay contracts.

Metro, or example,was or years required to deliverat least 200,000 tonnes o waste toCache Creek annually.

But Rattray has a ready answer,pledging he wouldnt insist onminimum waste ows rom Metro.

Were not looking or long-termput-or-pay rom anybody, he said.

Its the sort o promise thatraises skeptical eyebrows at Metroheadquarters, where o cials say no such o er has been made.

Rattray also maintains theland ll expansion will proceedeven i Metro doesnt sign onat all, because its likely to takewaste rom the Fraser Valley andTompson Nicola regional dis-tricts and possibly Van-couver Island. (Ranta,however, views Metroswaste as integral to theexpansion plan.)

A bridge to zerowaste

RATTRAY SAIDBelkorpcan simply build thenew land ll a smallsection at a time, basedon demand, with littleoutlay.

Te land ll optionprovides you with thatexibility, it doesnt

demand a long-termcommitment on supply-ing waste or the opera-tion to be viable, Rattray said.

Tat makes the land ll an idealinterim solution, he argues, asMetro pursues its primary wastemanagement goal o increasingthe recycling rate to 70 per cent

and beyond.Te Cache Creek

land ll is a bridge tothe zero waste goal,he said.

echnically, theland ll promises adouble compositeliner that uses layerso both clay andplastic to containleachate, whichwould also beregularly pumped

rom the bottom tothe top, where it canevaporate.

Te land ll will berequired to capture75 per cent o land llgas, methane that

orms rom the rot-ting garbage, andwhich may declinein the years aheadas local cities collectmore organics toturn into compost orbio uel.

Belkorp aims toconvert the land llgas into a liquid natu-

ral gas to power its own trucks andpossibly other big rigs that couldstop there to re uel. Other optionsunder consideration include providing the gas to erasens naturalgas grid or burning it as electricity.

For some, the debate boils downto philosophy.

People should have to dealwith the garbage in their ownbackyards, David Suzuki,Vancouvers most amous envi-ronmentalist, told Black Press lastmonth.

It is absolutely crazy orOntario to ship their garbage toMichigan or or Vancouver to shipits garbage up to Cache Creek.

Tis is absolutely unacceptable. Itscrazy. Weve got todeal with it right herewhere we generate it.

Suzuki saidwaste-to-energy incineration couldbe acceptable withthe right scrubbingtechnology he envi-sions chemical sievesthat you can blow thee uent through tobond to and removecomplex moleculeslike dioxins.

But he said the beststrategy is to reducegarbage in the rstplace, in part by orc-

ing business to take back all thepackaging that grossly in ates thewaste stream.

We ought to make disposablean obscene word.

[email protected]

Metro Vancouver disposes of 1.5 million tonnes of garbage(after recycling and diversion) per year:

35% goes to Vancouver Landll in Delta.

27% goes to Cache Creek regional landll. 19% goes to Burnaby waste-to-energy incinerator.

19% goes to demolition/landclearing/construction landlls.

Ted Rattray

David Suzuki

by Jef Nagel

LANDFILLING Atonne o garbage isthe energy equivalent o burying abarrel o oil in the ground.

Tats the rationale that NewJersey-based Covanta Energy believes

will ultimately avour its proposedwaste-to-energy plant at a de unctpulp mill in Gold River, on the westcoast o Vancouver Island.

Were ready to go, said Covanta vice-president om Lyons. I wehad a waste contract with MetroVancouver we could be in the groundand under construction within sixmonths.

Unlike Metros pre erred in-regionincinerator, the Gold River plantalready has environmental approvalsin place and could be built in less thanthree years.

Garbage would be loaded at NewWestminster and barged 200 kilome-tres around the Island to Gold River.

An estimated 90 megawatts o elec-tricity generated rom burning wastewould be sold to the B.C. Hydrogrid, helping power the Island ando setting the use o natural gas- redgenerators.

Lyons says theres also potential ora new industrial user to locate at GoldRiver and take residual heat.

Gold River isnt the only contenderor Metro waste i the region is orced

to pursue out-o -region disposal.Te Roosevelt regional land ll in

southern Washington State was eyedas a short-term destination or Metrowaste until the provincial governmentsaid last summer it would ban out-o -province garbage exports.

But despite the talk, the provincehas passed no legislation and waste

rom Whistler, Powell River and theCowichan Valley continues to go tothe Roosevelt land ll.

Te province okayed waste exportsto the U.S. land ll by Powell River asrecently as January, an approval thathas the dumps operators wondering i B.C.s anti-export stance is shifing.

Competition is good in the eyes o Metro politicians, who hope they arelef with more options than just send-ing waste to Cache Creek.

I the Interior land ll is the only place Metro garbage can go, they say,the sky is the limit on what taxpayersmight be orced to pay.

[email protected]

A competitive eld

Wheredoes the

egionsgarbagego?

m page 12 Island incinerator ready to go

NEXTFRIDAYIN THE

LEADER:

Wasteoptions

and

climatechange

Metro Vancouver is consulting on a new Draft IntegratedSolid Waste and Resource Management Plan to guidethe management of solid waste in an affordable andenvironmentally responsible way.

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISITwww.metrovancouver.org

How should we manage our waste?

Mon. May 3 Hope Hope Golf Club900 Golf Course Road

Tues. May 4 Port Moody Inlet Theatre100 Newport Drive

Wed. May 5 Langley Newlands Golf & Country Club21025 48th Avenue

Thurs. May 6 Maple Ridge Fraserview Village Hall22610 - 116th Avenue

Tues. May 11 North Vancouver Lonsdale Quay Hotel123 Carrie Cates Court

Sat. May 15Open House 12 - 1 pm

AbbotsfordPublic Input 1 - 4 pmQ & A 4 - 4:30 pm

NEW venue for Abbotsford

Abbey Arts Centre2329 Crescent Way

NEW

Tues. May 18 White RockCoast Capital Playhouse1532 Johnston Road

Wed. May 19 Vancouver

Vancouver Public Library

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Wed. June 16 Chilliwack Best Western Rainbow Country Inn43971 Industrial WayNEW

Thurs. June 17 New WestminsterFraser River Discovery Centre788 Quayside Drive

Send your comments by July 14, 2010 to:

Lois E. Jackson, Chair, Metro Vancouver orGreg Moore, Chair, Metro Vancouver Waste Management Committee,who will be chairing the public meetings.EMAIL:[email protected] FAX: 604-432-6297MAIL: Metro Vancouver, Public Involvement Division

4330 Kingsway, Burnaby B.C. V5H 4G8

OPEN HOUSE 6 pm7 pm PUBLIC INPUT 7 pm 10 pm Q & A 10 pm10:30 pmPUBLIC MEETINGS

If you wish to speak at a public meeting, you will be asked to register at thefront desk (ve minutes per speaker). Written submissions are encouraged,and will be acknowledged. Issues raised in correspondence and at publicmeetings will be addressed prior to submission of the nal plan to the B .C.Minister of Environment for approval.Metro Vancouver staff will be available to answer questions duringthe open house and Q & A portion of the evening.


6/13


Scott Temreck,he manager offuel marketing

and researchfor Urban

Woodwasteecyclers in NewWestminster,

th a handful ofhog fuel, whichs comprised of

chopped andhredded wood

m constructionand demolitionites. Its mixed

with smallamounts of

per and plasticbecome a fuel

for Lafargeshmond cement

plant.

MARIO BARTEL/BLACK PRESS

How climate change is burning up more of what we recycle

by Jef Nagel

W ood makes up 20 per cent o the regionswaste stream and diverting more o itrom the landfll is a critical plank inMetro Vancouvers plan to increase re-

cycling.But much o the wood already being collected

isnt really recycled.Instead, its being burned to power local indus-

tries that can then claim to have greened their busi-nesses by cutting carbon emissions.

Its an under-the-radar trend Metro Vancouvero cials acknowledge has implications or every-thing rom air quality to Metros own waste incin-eration plans.

Te poster child or wood recycling is UrbanWoodwaste Recycling.

rucks continuously roll in to the frms NewWestminster yard, adding to a vast pile o scrapwood, pallets and even logs that await processing.

Workers and machines sort the material, flterout contaminants, recover commodities o valueand then grind most o the wood into either uel orcompost.

Te real market is uel, says Scott emreck,director o uel marketing and research at UrbanWoodwaste.

Other materials are extracted and sold emreck points to bins o wire, cable, aluminum, nails andother metals but they are byproducts.

Te only reason we can recycle is that we makemoney rom the uel.

A key customer is the La arge cement plantin Richmond, which burns mainly coal to cook

cement or the concrete used to build sidewalks,bridges and buildings.

Urban Woodwaste ships La arge process-engineered uel (PEF) shredded wood with smallamounts o paper and non-recyclable plastics addedto boost combustion.

A er a two-year experiment, La arge now burns15 per cent PEF.

Wed like to get up to 40 per cent o our uels being alternative, says Randy Gue, La arges director o business devel-opment and resource recovery.

He claims the wood-based uel burnssomewhat cleaner than coal (althoughcritics argue wood may be contaminated,and cement plants are o en less scruti-nized and use less advanced scrubbingtechnology than waste incinerators.)

But the real motivator is money.La arge pays less or local wood uel thanit does importing coal.

And wood has another big advantage.Its counted as a carbon-neutral uel

because its assumed new orests growto replace those cut down, unlike theburning o coal, which adds net newgreenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

Switching rom coal to wood hasallowed La arge to claim a huge reduc-tion in greenhouse gas emissions 189,000 tonnes o carbon dioxide overthree years.

La arge converts those credits tocash by selling them to O setters Clean

echnology, which in turn sells them tothe Pacifc Carbon rust, the provincialgovernments clearing house or greenhouse gas

o sets.Provincial government agencies, including schooldistricts and health authorities, are under orders tobecome carbon-neutral, and are expected to pay thetrust $25 or each tonne o carbon emissions they cant avoid internally.

Tat means taxpayers dollars subsidize La argesshi to wood uel.

Te trust says the alternative PEF uel is cleanerbut those calculations are based solely on green-house gas reductions, without examining impactson local air pollution.

B.C.s escalating carbon tax is also an incentive toswitch.

La arge pays carbon tax on the coalit burns but not on wood-based uel,making wood cheaper in comparisonwith each passing year.

Te company doesnt rule outbroader use o unsorted waste as a uelin the uture, either.

echnologies exist to turn garbageinto fnger-sized uel pellets that couldalso eed the cement plant, Gue said,but added that would depend on such aprocessor setting up shop here.

La arge isnt the only local industry burning up part o the waste stream.

Used tires collected rom acrossB.C. or recycling end up at a plant onAnnacis Island.

But not all o them become recycledrubber products. Close to 30 per cento the tires 3,000 a day are insteadburned as uel at sites such as LehighNorthwest Cement in Delta, the regionsother big cement plant.

Lehigh is also looking at using wood-based uel rom Urban Woodwaste.

Both cement plants are very inter-ested in alternative uels, says Metroplanning manager Ken Carrusca. I

have never seen the cement industry as interested as

they have been in the last ew months.He says the use o wood and other waste-baseduels to cut carbon emissions has taken o without

many people realizing it.

See WOOD WASTE / Page 19




plans

TRASHTRASH TALKTALK

A proposed new Metro Vancouver waste-to-energy plant is highly contentious. But pressure to fght climate change is leading some industries to usewaste as uel as well. Tis third instalment in our

rash alk series looks at carbon emissions and thein uence they exert.

Stealth incinerators


7/13


Wood waste: arget todivert 76% by 2015

ublic concern about Metros draf wastenagement plan has ocused on the pre erredtegy to build a new waste-to-energy incinera-

n the region to consume up to 500,000 tonnesgarbage.ut the plan also opens the door or ongoing usehe cement kilns and other burners because itnes waste-to-energy as not just a new incinera-but also industrial use o re use-derived uel.

What i in-region waste-to-energy is eliminatedm the plan due to air quality concerns?arrusca wouldnt speculate on whether thatld halt the ow o wood to other burners likearge.andy Gue at La arge isnt worried about that

nario. His bigger ear is that Metro will buildwn second incinerator that will swallow

rything and reduce the cement plants supply alternative uels.

Local competitionor wood-baseduel is growing,

even without a newincinerator.Te Kruger tis-

sue paper mill inNew Westminsterrecently converted

rom natural gas tourban wood waste

uel, burning morethan 50,000 tonnesper year.

Nexterra Energy,the Vancouvercompany behind thetechnology Krugeruses, also plans togasi y 13,000 tonnes

wood waste per year at UBC to create heat andtricity or the university.

oth projects claim dramatic green-se gas reductions equivalent tong thousands o cars o the road.everal local greenhouses have alsoverted rom natural gas to woodl in recent years..C. Hydros latest clean energy callopens the door to more use o

od waste, also called biomass, toerate electricity.e province de nes uncontami-d wood as a clean or renewable

rgy source. Municipal garbage canbe deemed a clean and renewable

l, but only with the approval o .s energy minister.ince most wood- red systemst more local air pollutants than ones burning

ural gas, the question arises: will more burninguels deemed renewable, clean and green or thenet as a whole hurt air quality on a local level?

Metro Vancouvers air quality division consid-d the issue two years ago when it rewrote the

rules or industrial boilers in the region.O cials concluded some worsening o local air

pollution rom increased wood burning was justi-ed to reduce carbon emissions and help achieve

climate change goals.Ben West o the Western Canada Wilder-

ness Committee says that logic ails to take intoaccount the nasty toxins emitted rom burning

wood thats treated, painted or mixedwith other contaminants.We need to move away rom

burning stu or power, West said. Itshould be the last option in terms o where we get our energy rom.

He says the push or bioenergy andbiomass burning is more about ndinga use or B.C.s vast stands o beetle-killed pine orests to aid the loggingindustry.

Even i carbon reductions are thesole objective, he doesnt see wood

uel as the answer, because trees burnup ar aster than replacement orestsgrow back.

What I worry about is we get to thepoint somebody wants to expand their project inthe tar sands and they have to go and buy carbono sets, West said. Tat money is given to La argeor burning wood chips. And I just dont see wherewere reducing the amount o carbon anywhere inthat.

BOAZ JOSEPH / BLACK PRESS

The Lehigh Cement plant in Delta uses tiresas part of its fuel supply.

Ben West

m page 18

Carbon math: whichdisposal option isbest for the climate?WHETHER WASTEincinerators or land-

lls do best in minimizing greenhousegas emissions rom garbage dependsheavily on who crunches the numbersand the creativity o their math.

Land lls have traditionally been con-sidered heavy greenhouse gas emittersbecause the land ll gas that burps romtheir bowels contains methane, which

is 21 times more potent at warming theplanet than carbon dioxide.Incinerators score carbon points

because they convert garbage intoenergy, avoiding the needto pull new ossil uels outo the ground to burn andsend into the sky.

Much o the emissionsrom burning garbage

there ore shouldnt becounted when addingup greenhouse gases,according to the UNsIntergovernmental Panelon Climate Change.

Metro also contends anew waste-to-energy plantcan urther o set carbon

emissions by piping steamto nearby buildings, whichthen no longer burn theirown uel.

Incinerators also extractmetals rom the slag orrecycling, which is countedas o setting the energy and emissionsotherwise spent mining virgin metalsand smelting new steel in places likeChina or the U.S.

But hold on. ime may be on theside o the dumps.

Operators o the Cache Creek land llsay they now capture nearly 70 per cento land ll gas and the technology isimproving. Instead o just aring thegas, they aim to generate electricity orturn it into vehicle uel.

Also, Metros aggressive plan to

collect ood waste should pull largeamounts o organic material out o thewaste stream.

Tat reduces the amount o wetgarbage going to the land ll to rot material responsible or the bulk o themethane created.

As the region gets better at compost-ing and diverting organics, the logicgoes, land lls become more climate-

riendly because more o whats lef areplastics and other inert materials.

Tat ossil carbon is then stored inthe dump, rather than sending it tothe sky, which some analysts say givesland lls the advantage.

I you get all the organics out, theland lls would be virtually carbon-neutral, says Ben West o the Western

Canada Wilderness Com-mittee.

Metro o cials counter thatgreenhouse gas emissionsstill occurs rom compost-ing organics, whether thathappens in a land ll or at acompost acility.

Also sometimes lef out isthe act methane captured

rom land lls turns into car-bon dioxide when burned.

Which side is right?Jordan Best, policy analyst

or the Recycling Councilo B.C., concludes land lland incinerator proponentshave both made extravagantclaims and the truth lies inbetween.

Incinerators may have theedge or now, he said, but as the wastestream changes, the two technologiesmay end up very close in terms o carbon output.

A third option called mechanicalbiological treatment (MB ) wouldprocess garbage be ore land lling tominimize carbon emissions.

Its counted by Metro consultants asthe best option o all based on climatealone, but has been excluded rom theplan because the estimated costs are

ar higher than either incinerators orstraight land lling.

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Pressure is growing to reduce, reuseand recycle our way to a less waste-

ridden society and avoid the need or anew incinerator or landfll. Tis ourthinstalment o a Black Press special series on Metro Vancouvers garbagestrategy explores how ar we can go onthe road to zero waste.

by Jef Nagel

O pponents o a proposednew garbage incineratoror the Lower Mainlandare championing an ele-gant, green alternative: stop generatingas much garbage in the frst place.

Campaigners in the zero wastemovement say Metro Vancouversdra solid waste management plandoesnt put nearly enough emphasis

on waste reduction and recycling.Get serious about that, they argue,and the region could slash the wastestream and avoid the need to buildeither a new waste-to-energy plant orsign on to an expanded Cache Creek landfll.

At the same time, wed turn gar-bage into needed resources, creategreen jobs in new recycling industriesand reduce greenhouse gas emis-sions.

Is it too good to be true?I dont think its a antasy, says

Monica Kosmak, a waste policy consultant who ormerly worked orMetro. Its certainly possible. You setthe target and you go or it.

Metro contends its trash reduction

plan is both serious and aggressive.It aims to boost the recycling raterom 55 per cent now to a minimum

70 per cent by 2015.Much o the gains are to be

achieved by diverting morewood waste andcollecting oodle overs andother organics toturn into com-post or bio uel.

Success willdepend on morecities adopting

ood wastecurbside pickupand residents

getting overthe ick actoro separatingtheir putre yingkitchen scraps,storing themand then puttingthem at the curb.

Te plan also hingeson pulling much morepaper and cardboardout o the garbagestream.

Both are already banned violators caught dumping suchloads at trans er stations can be fned but awhopping 305,000 tonnes a year still fnds itsway into the garbage.

Even i such measures succeed in divertingan extra 600,000 tonnes o wood, ood andorganics per year, Metro projects it will stillneed more new capacity to dispose o morethan a million tonnes o remaining waste in2015, an amount it expects to continue to

climb as the Lower Mainlands populationgrows by roughly 50 per cent over the nextthree decades.

Tat remaining garbage would exceed thecombined capacity o the Vancouver Landfllin Burns Bog and the existing Burnaby incinerator, making an extra outlet necessary.

o Kosmak, Metros math seems calcu-lated to avour a new incinerator.

It appears to me the target is to stop at70 per cent and then build incinerators, shesaid, adding supplemental targets should bedrawn up to go to 80 per cent by 2020 andthen 90 per cent by 2030.

She and others say plenty o tools are avail-able to cut waste urther.

Pay-as-you-throw pickup, in use in Van-

couver and Seattle, makes residents pay orcollection based on the size o the can they choose.

Homes can save cash by opting or the tiny micro-can and committing to waste control.

But because collection here is done by cit-ies, not Metro, such measures would be up toindividual municipalities.

Much tougher en orcement is needed toblock the dumping o waste already banned,Kosmak added.

Tat is, indeed, part o the plan, althoughMetro o cials dont envision anything asintrusive as the can-opening, bag-probinggarbage inspectors deployed in jurisdictionslike San Francisco.

Options could include in o-tagging bags

or cans with banned waste or assess-ing fnes, although Kosmak pre ers

gentler re-education o residents.I dont like the eco-cop model, shesaid. Were not going to win this i wealienate everyone.

New disposal bans are also likely toblock dumping o wood and, eventu-ally, organic waste.

Regulators tread a fne line in pun-ishing wastrels or driving up the priceo disposal: going too ar can triggeran epidemic o illegal dumping.

Apartments a trouble spot

METROS CURRENT55 per centrecycling rate is deceptive because itsa blended average the high recyclingrate o the demolition/constructionsector (76 per cent) actually pulls uppoorer per ormance o residents.Single- amily homes, o en withgarages and more space to store recy-clables, currently recycle 44 per cent o their garbage.

But in multi- amily buildings,where space is tight and garbage sinsare made anonymous by a commondumpster, the rate plummets to 16per cent. Tat must improve i Metrois to reach its target, particularly sincemore o us will live in apartments orcondos as the region continues todensi y.

Te region already has one bigwaste-reduction advantage.

B.C.s product stewardship pro-grams are the envy o most o therecycling world.

Te much-lauded take-back programs, most unded by deposits oreco- ees, make industry collect bever-age containers, used tires, unwantedpaint, pesticides, used oil and, mostrecently, electronicwaste like comput-ers and Vs.

Even so, per ec-tion is elusive.

Some unscru-pulous depots stillship away deadcomputers to bepried apart in dan-gerous conditionsoverseas.

Encorp captures77 per cent o beverage contain-ers or recycling,but 230 million ayear elude the blueboxes.

ires no longerlinger in piles thatpose a fre risk, but

the industry group thatcollects them or recy-cling sends up to 30 per cent to be burned asindustrial uel.

Plastic bottles are ground into pellets orrecycling at a plant on Annacis Island, but20 per cent ends up as residue that becomesgarbage.

Tose residuals mean that even i every-thing was collected, a 100 per cent recyclingrate doesnt result.

You will never get around 15 per cent o the waste, said Metro engineer and planningmanager Ken Carrusca.

ZERO WAS E: Fantasy or the uture?FridayMay 21 2010 Surrey North Delta Lead

BOAZ JOSEPH / THE LEADER

Helen Spiegelman, a Zero Waste Vancouver advocate, shows a weeks worth of herhousehold garbage.rt 4 of a Black

Press specialies examiningthe issues

rrounding theegions wastemanagement

plans

RASHRASH ALKALK

The green dream of reducing garbage and increasing recycling faces steep challenges

See WASTE BURDEN / Page 17

You willnever getaround 15per cent of the waste.

So theceiling (forrecycling) isaround 85per cent.

Ken Carrusca


9/13

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So the ceiling isund 85 per cent.ther products, made

composite materialson-compostable

anics like leather, de y cling altogether.onsider, he said,optimistic scenariore 90 per cent o ple recycle 90 pero their waste.

at means at best 81cent o materials are

ng or recycling.ake into account theecyclable residualsprocessors leavend, he said, and itdif cult to evenh 70 per cent, a level

other major city inworld has surpassed.Society is not per ect,rusca said.ncreasingly, heed, what remainse shed out o thete stream is harder tocle and more costly.ose are all chal-es, critics reply, buts that underscore thed to reduce waste in

rst place.

king businessy

KE-BACKprogramsthe way o the

uture, argues HelenSpiegelman o ZeroWaste Vancouver.

She predicts new take-backs will steadily relieveMetro o disposal respon-sibility and dump the jobon business stewards.

Spiegelman hopes

the new programs arepunishingly expensiveand the high costs spurbusiness to sell productswith less packaging anddesign goods or long li eand recyclability ratherthan disposability.

Consumers would pay more or waste ul goods.

We have a throwaway society because the pro-ducers that pro t rommaking the productsthey sell to us arentcovering the cost o thewaste, she said. Its

wel are or waste.Te provincial govern-

ment is poised to soonexpand the currente-waste take-back toinclude cellphones, cam-eras, small appliances,lighting, toys and sportsgear. By mid-2012, virtu-ally anything with anelectric cord or battery is to be covered, as theprogram extends to largeappliances, electric toolsand medical equipment.

Consumers will likely pay more eco- ees on abroader range o newproducts.

Nobody wants to stopthere.

Metro is lobbying ormore take-backs and anaccelerated pace, espe-cially the introduction o requirements to collectall packaging.

Its unclear how apackaging take-back system would work the environmentministry is pledging todeliver a comprehensiveone by 2015 butSpiegelman and otherssay it would likely haveto be pursued in stages,by working with oneproduct type and set o producers at a time.

A consumerrevolution?

WHAT WOULDsome-thing approaching azero-waste society look like?

Spiegelmansees a world

ar removedrom the

hyper-commercialli estyle thatso ar pre- vails.

She envi-sions discardmalls reusecentreswhere peoplewill swapused goodinstead o buying new along withnew greenrecyclingindustries.

Youll see a lot morespent on stewardship o things we own, ratherthan just consumptionand disposal, she said.Youll see repair shops.People having their

avourite shoes repairedand maintained. Itmeans no longer throw-ing something away and

replacing it.It amounts to a seis-

mic shi in consumerbehaviour.

How will MetroVancouver re orm shop-pers and stop the ow

o cheap,o en over-packagedgoods romChina?Its goingto come onus either by choice orby orce,predictsSpiegelman,who believesthe loomingend o cheapoil will soontrans ormsociety.

Ourchildren arenot going to

be able to do what wedid. We are burning andburying their resources.

Spiegelman has madethe choice and walks thetalk.

She buys black beansin bulk and cooks themup in a big vat to be ro-zen the resulting mealslast a month, save money and avoid stacks o cans.

You dont nd single-serving conveniencemeals Spiegelman callsit industrial ood inher cupboard.

She bakes and sewsand grows what she can.

Tese are practicesin the home that peoplearent doing becausetheyre so busy makingmoney so they can buy more stu .

At the end o a week,her garbage bin is empty but or about two cupso mainly lm plastic everything else isrecycled or composted.

A sel -describedeccentric, Spiegelmanaccepts that not every-one is going to willingly do what she does.

Tats where cities andthe Metro governmentcome in, she says, by blocking the option o cheap, easy disposalthat subsidizes over-consumption.

She said engineersneed new instructions stop making ourgarbage disappear amessage that runs coun-ter to the idea o turningwaste into energy in anincinerator.

[email protected]


Waste burden: o shi to consumers and businesses?m page 16

NEXT

FRIDAYIN THELEADER:

VancouverLandll:

Ourmountainof trash

Ken Carrusca

Metrorecyclingrates:

Overall: 55%

Demolition,land clearing andconstruction: 76%

Institutional,commercial andlight industrial:44%

Single familyresidential: 46%

Multi-familyresidential: 16%

Target for 2015:70%

Otherplaces:

Austria: 70%

Belgium: 59%

Germany: 65%

Netherlands:60%

Sweden: 48%

Canada: 22%


10/13

More garbage goes to theVancouver Landfll in Deltahan to either Cache Creek or he existing Metro incinerator.Tis f h part in a Black Presseries on waste management ooks at the uture o the regionsocal dump.

by Jef Nagel

Dr ivers pass ingthrough Delta onHighway 99 canusually smell it be-ore they see it.Te Vancouver Landfll, a

man-made mesa o garbage asall as a 10-storey building, ishe fnal resting place o 40 percent o the Lower Mainlandswaste.

Metro Vancouvers proposedolid waste management planassumes garbage will continueo be packed in layers at theandfll on the edge o BurnsBog or decades to come,egardless o whether a second

waste-to-energy incinerators built or the Cache Creek egional landfll is expanded.

Te dump owned andoperated by the City o Van-couver poses environmentalisks more serious than odour.

In January 2009, a fre brokeout in the landfll and burnedunderground or our weeksbe ore fre crews were able toextinguish it, using 500,000gallons o water.Te smoke plume romuch fres can contain large

amounts o airborne toxins. Unlike burning garbage at awaste incinerator, no scrubbing systems clean emissions roma landfll fre. Nor is the waste burned at the extremely highemperatures an incinerator uses to break down most danger-ous organic compounds.

And there is no accurate way to test what is actually com-ng out o the ground.

Metro o cials estimate the 2009 Vancouver Landfllre released dioxins into the air equivalent to running the

Burnaby incinerator or 57 years.Youre dealing with an uncontrolled emission source that

has no air pollution controls associated with it, Metro seniorengineer Chris Allan said.

Landfll manager Lynn Belanger calls the 2009 fre ansolated incident.

She also says the dioxins released may be lower than Metrocalculates, because demolition and construction waste was onre, rather than regular garbage, on which U.S. Environmen-al Protection Agency (EPA) landfll fre data is based.

Metro o cials say similar dioxin levels could easily comerom burning demolition waste, which contains wood treated

with preservatives or coated in stains and paints, along withsome plastics and PVC.

Tey argue the risk to the public o more fres in the utureremains signifcant and should be at least considered inweighing the regions waste disposal alternatives.

Collecting landll gas

THE VANCOUVERLandfll is also a big local source o green-house gas emissions, because the landfll gas that burps

rom the pile contains methane, which is 21 times morepotent in warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

According to the U.S. EPA, landfll gas also contains lowlevels o mercury absorbed rom the batteries, uorescentlight bulbs, electrical devices and paint that can end up indumps.

Capturing and burning landfll gas reduces greenhouse gasimpacts and converts any mercury to a less toxic orm.A grid o pipes in the Vancouver Landfll collects an

estimated 70 per cent o its landfll gas. Belanger expects thatwill soon climb to 73 per cent and beyond as the dump closes

more cells and lays downplastic covers on top to trapmore gas.

Close to a f h o thelandfll gas is ared on siteat two large burners.

Most o the gas collectedis piped under Highway 99and burned to heat nearby greenhouses run by VillageFarms and to generateelectricity or B.C. Hydro.Te partnership eases cli-mate change impacts andreduces the need to burnother uels equivalent totaking 6,000 cars o theroad and heating up to4,000 homes.

Water pollution is alsoa risk.

Any landfll generates acertain amount o leachate the toxic soup producedwhen rainwater sluicesthrough garbage.

Te Vancouver Landfllis particularly susceptiblebecause o its rainy WestCoast location, unlike thearid, desert-like climate atthe Cache Creek landfll.

Any new landfll builtunder modern regulationswould require a compositeclay-and-plastic liner tocontain leachate.

But the Vancouverlandfll, built in 1966, hasno such liner. Instead itrelies on a compactedclay base thats consideredhighly impermeable and asystem o twin ditches that

surround the perimeter to catch leachate that seeps out thesides o the dump.

Leachate caught by the dikes is pumped out to the AnnacisIsland sewage plant or treatment.

Underground wells are used to regularly test the ground-water in aqui ers that ow southwest under the dump towardBoundary Bay.

Were not seeing migration o leachate in the aqui ers inthe groundwater below the landfll, Belanger said.

Meanwhile, e orts to take ood scraps and other organicsout o the waste stream should reduce the amount o leachategenerated over time, as will the gradual closing o more sec-tions o the dump.

Not everyone is reassured.Eliza Olson, president o the Burns Bog Conservation

Society, ears an earthquake could lique y soil in the area andrelease a torrent o pent-up landfll e uent.

It could spill toxins into the neighbouring armland andthe Fraser River, she said. Youve got an ecological disasterwaiting to happen there.


See METRO / Page 19




plans

TRASHTRASH TALKTALK

TrashTrashmountainmountainMetro plans to keep dumping garbage at the

Vancouver landll in Burns Bog

A heavy-dutybulldozer movestrash around atthe VancouverLandll in BurnsBog.EVAN SEAL / THE LEADER


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The high degree of North American media interest in the recent British elections hasbeen surprising and that

contentious road safety issues have attracted someof this attention evenmore so. Perhaps the new Transport Secretary, PhilipHammonds command of the sound bite explains it.On his first day on the jobhe said, The war on the motorist is over, which is surely an enticement.

On one of the longest simmering issuesMr. Hammond promised to end the way the countrys 33 million drivers have beentargeted by an array of speed cameras, andstressed the coalition government wouldabide by a Tory manifesto promise not tofund any more fixed-position speed cameras.Councils could fund them if they had themoney and could justify their use but themoney raised would go to the Treasury.

The effectiveness of the nationwide network

of speed cameras in reducing fatalities haslong been questioned by many led by [thelate] Paul Smith, an engineer turned roadsafety expert. In 1999, as income from speedcamera recorded offences approached 100million a year, the previously downward trendin the number of fatal accidents had reversed.Nevertheless the government continued tofocus its road safety strategy on speed, citing a government report to the effect that excessiveand inappropriate speed contributed farmore than any other single [factor]to casualties on our roads. The report,however, didnt actually say this. It identifiedmany other factors from driving without duecare and attention to the influence of drink;from poor overtaking to nodding off at the wheel and ranked excessive speed as a cause of crashes at only 7.3 per cent.

Mr. Smith was so shocked by the

governments misuse of iown statistics that in 2001he set up a website www.safespeed.org.uk.Mr. Smith contended

that speed cameras hadcreated a nation of drivers concentrating oncompliance rather thansafety. He said that safedrivers learn to adjust their speed to remainsafe in the prevailing

road, weather and traffic conditions andthat this adjustment is an output from [thedrivers] own internal risk management system. Yet implicitly the Department of Transport [DfT] was regarding speed as aninputand denying that drivers were capabof managing risk.

Mr.Smith charged the DfT with feedingthe driving citizenry a false dogma to justiits policies that has infected our road safetindustry, with millions now believing that tonly way to safer roads is slower traffic.

Another group, Drivers Alliance, started

in July 2008 to oppose road pricing andcongestion chargingcongestion beingmeasured by speed of travelis callingfor the new government to mandate that speed limits on main roads respect theinternationally recognized 85th percentileprinciple for setting optimum safe limitsspeed at which 85% of the traffic travels ona roadway. Arguing that under the Labourgovernment many speed limits were set toolow for political and ideological reasons,Drivers Alliance says that speed limits shobe set to keep traffic moving, minimizejourney times and keep the roads safe.

And the debate goes on.

by Cedric Hughes, Barrister & Solicitor with regular weekly contributions fromLeslie McGufn, LL.B.

The War on Speed in the UK

THETHE

ROADROADRULESRULES

Cedric Hughes Barrister & Solicitorwww.roadrules.ca

Discover the LighterSide of the LandfillCome out to one of the most unique andinteresting events in the city! Join us at theCity of Vancouvers 10th annual LandfillOpen House on:

Saturday, June 5, 9 am - 3:30 pm5400 72nd Street, Delta

See what surprises are in store at this635-hectare, wheelchair-accessible site.Check out the ocean views and hawks andfalcons in flight. Learn about some of ourgreen initiatives such as composting andpower generation. Pick up free compost.Other highlights include: behind-the-scenes

tours, craft activities for kids, equipmentdisplays, free refreshments and more!

FOR MORE INFORMATION:vancouver.ca/landfill or phoneOutside Vancouver 604.873.7000

Highway 99 toVancouver

Highway 17

FraserRiver

VancouverLandfill

R i v e

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n d

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64thSt.

60th Ave.

GeorgeMassey

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vancouver.ca

he Surrey FireFighters

We hewould like to thanko rt:ow ng or e r supp

MISSION STATEMENTo provide charitable programs thateneft the citizens o our communitynd to assist other charities withinhe community that have similaroals and objectives.

For in o on volunteering at our store - -

Contact us at:8767-132 Street, Surrey,BC V3W 4P104-574-5785 www.surrey ire ighters.com

A Dog Day Afternoon Bryan Philips

Jacob Gerein

Are seeking volunteers to assist inthe operation o our Thri t Store.I you would like to join a team o people dedicated to helping theircommunity in a un and robust

working environment we wantou! A unique partnership with the

Surrey Hospice Society ensures all netinco e o the store is used to beneft the

eople o Surrey. Don tions o items in good condition cane dropped o at the store or placed in a collection bin locatedmost fre halls in Surr y. Drop by and visit us Monday thruturday 10:00 am - 5:0pm. We are located at the corner o Ave. and King George Hwy. beside the Newton Wave Pool.

eap butoved

LTA COUNCILwantslandfll closed asckly as possible.Te majority o ple dont want toe it here, said Mayors Jackson, speaking

Delta mayor, ratherthe chair o Metros

rd.he aces an uphillle.ity o Vancouverials see the potentialun the landfll or att another 40 yearss currently permittedperate until 2037.ackson said she hasd but ailed to per-de City o Vancouverticians to meet touss the long-termure o the dump.elta cannot unilater-end the tripartiteement it has withro and Vancouverorizing the landfll.Tey have carteche to continue

mping stinkingbage into another

mmunity withoutotiations, withoutussion, and theyre

y content with theus quo, Jackson said.y want to be theenest city in the worldut at the expense o Delta airshed, our

dways, our truck c problem and the

longevity o that permit.Money is a big motive,

she charges.Te low cost o the

Vancouver Landfll $30 per tonne o wastedumped there givesCity o Vancouverresidents ar cheaperdisposal than i they had to use the rest o theregional system, whichcosts $82 per tonne.

Vancouver alsocharges the ull regionalrate on much o the non-residential waste dumpedthere and pockets thedi erence a $52-per-tonne proft that adds upto millions o dollars o revenue a year.

Consultants or Van-couver estimated the city will save $700 millionover the next 40 yearsby being able to dumpat its own landfll, ratherthan using the regionalsystem.

Tey also recom-mended Vancouver resist

any proposals to eitherclose the landfll early

or open it up to moreo the rest o the region,and instead preserve it aslong as possible or theprimary use o Vancou- ver taxpayers.

As host o the landfll,Delta gets major beneftsas well ree disposal

or its residents and a

ow o royalties paid by Vancouver.Its a sweet deal or

us, Jackson acknowl-edges, adding some o her taxpayers might say Delta should shut up andtake the money.

But its not socially responsible, its not politi-cally responsible.

Vancouvercity councilhas come outagainst thecombustiono more waste(they pre eralternative

waste-to-energy tech-nologies otherthan a newmass-burnincinerator).

VancouverCoun.Heather Deal, whoserves on Metros wastemanagement commit-tee, denies Jacksonsclaims that Vancouveris opposing incinerationto ensure long-term useo the Vancouver landflland block a competingoutlet or waste.

She said fnances were

not a actor in the deci-sion and that Vancouver

is willing to discuss thelandflls uture withDelta and Metro Van-couver.

Were happy to havethat discussion, Dealsaid. We want to aggres-sively pursue reducingthe amount o wastegoing into the landfll

and taking out the organ-ics so we dont have themethane issues.

Deal said the Vancou- ver Landfll will likely always need to be opento take the ash thats lebehind by the existingwaste incinerator.As recyclingrises, dump limit

tightens

Waste-reductionadvocatessay MetroVancouvercould i itcan boostthe recyclingrate past 70per cent getby withoutsendingwaste toCache Creek

or building a new incin-erator.

Tey suggest allresidual waste would goto either the Burnaby incinerator, which takesabout 280,000 tonnes peryear, or the VancouverLandfll, which currently takes 650,000 tonnesannually but could goup to a maximum o

750,000 tonnes allowedunder its operatingpermit.

But that becomesproblematic as diversionrates rise.

Te three-way agree-ment governing theVancouver Landflllimits how much can

be dumped there to theactual amounts o wastegenerated by its servicearea the City o Van-couver, UBC-area lands,Richmond, Delta, SouthSurrey and White Rock.

I those areas increaserecycling and reducewhat they dump cur-rently 670,000 tonnesper year the annualdisposal limit at theland all alls as well.

I the regions westernmunicipalities attain 70per cent recycling by 2015, Metro estimatesthe limit or the Van-

couver Landfll will allto 470,000 tonnes peryear.

Along with theBurnaby incinerator,the region would thenhave 750,000 tonnes o disposal capacity well

below estimates thatmore than 1.2 milliontonnes per year willneed disposal.

Metro estimates adiversion rate o 80 to83 per cent would be

needed to ft the wasteneeding disposal withinthe limits on the use o the Vancouver Landflland Burnaby incinera-tor.

jnagel@surreyleader.


Vancouver: Carte blanche to continue dumpingm page 18

NEXTFRIDAYIN THE

LEADER:Decision

time

Lois Jackson

Vancouver Landllby the numbers:

Height: 39 metres at peak

Area: 225 hectares

Permitted until: 2037

Current annual disposal: 510,000tonnes of garbage plus 140,000 tonnesof demolition waste

Leachate pumped out per year: 2million cubic metres

Serves: 1 million Metro residents inVancouver, Richmond, Delta, WhiteRock and South Surrey.

Open house:Want to get a better look at theVancouver Landll operations? Anopen house is slated for Saturday, June5. Details are at www.vancouver.ca/ landllopenhouse


12/13


13/13

2010 Local Government By-ElectionElector OrganizationsThe Local Government By-Election of a Councillor will be held onSaturday, September 18, 2010.An elector organization is an organization that endorses theelection of a particular candidate.

If an elector organization intends to endorse a candidate inthis election, and wishes to have its name on the ballot alongwith the candidates name, the organization must have been inexistence for at least 60 days and have had a membership of atleast 50 electors of the local government for that period. The lastday for establishment of an elector organization that wants toendorse a candidate in this election is June 13, 2010.

For additional information please contact:The Ofce of the Municipal ClerkThe Corporation of Delta4500 Clarence Taylor Crescent Delta, B.C. V4K 3E2604-946-3222 (Tel) 604-946-3390 (Fax)[email protected] (email)

The Corporation of Delta4500 Clarence Taylor Crescent

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Future Shop Correction Notice

Bell BlackBerry Pearl Prepaid 10145300. Please note that this cellphone advertised on page 24 the May 28 flyer has 128MB of flashmemory, NOT 128GB, as previously advertised. We sincerelyapologize for any inconvenience this may have caused our valued

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New Appointment Atkinson & TerryInsurance Brokers

is proud to announce the appointment of

Geoff Metcalfe

Atkinson and Terry Insurance Brokers is pleased to welcome Geoff Metcalfe to thecommercial team at its head ofce - Delta Shoppers Mall branch.

With over 40 years experience in all types of insurance including commercial, property,liability and autoplan, Geoff is dedicated to providing the highest level of insurance adviceto his clients. He has extensive experience as a broker in theSurrey , Delta and Langley areas and is a former partner with Beveridge Insurance Brokers.

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reducing garbage and the commit-tee might well recommend a moreaggressive diversion target.

Te draf plan commits theregion to raise the recycling raterom 55 to 70 per cent by 2015,

when the plan is to be reviewed.Most o the gains are to come

rom diverting much more woodand organics rom the garbage.

Metros calculations do notprovide or improvements as

rom new industry-led takeback programs expected to come onstream.

O cials say they cannot counton those programs diverting morematerial because they do notexist yet and depend on action by Victoria.

Senior engineer DennisRanahan notes the solid waste

management plan is a regulatory document to which Metro will belegally bound.

It cant be an idealistic or inspi-rational target, he said. Its a realtarget we have to meet.

Over to Victoria

Once passed by Metrosboard, the document goes toenvironment minister Barry Penner likely by August or early September.

Penner could do one o threethings:

Approve the plan as presentedby Metro without changes.

Make changes himsel and

then approve the amended plan. Flag de ciencies in the planand send it back or Metro toamend and resubmit.

Potential changes i Pennereels air quality concerns in the

Fraser Valley are paramount

could include eliminatingin-region waste-to-energy as anoption or just stroking out mass-burn incineration.

Even i the minister approvesa Metro plan allowing a newincinerator with in-region waste-to-energy as the pre erred disposalsolution, a new burner is no slamdunk.

Metro would rst call or pro-posals and evaluate bids rom pro-ponents o various technologies.

I the board then sought tobuild a new incinerator, Pennercould still block that option by

re using to issue an environmentalcerti cate.

Moore doubts that would hap-pen.

I he believes in-region incin-eration is not a viable option, Iwould think that he would take itout, Moore said.

Much money will be spent by bidding companies, he said, and itwouldnt be air to them i Pennerhad no intention to green light any incinerator at the environmentalassessment stage.

Penner would not discuss sucha scenario.

Ill be giving speci c attentionto issues related to air quality, hesaid. Tats just one component,but its one Ill be looking at very closely.

Penner will be getting advicerom ministry sta and could also

choose to order urther indepen-dent research.

Te National CollaboratingCentre on Health and Environ-ment, based at the B.C. Centre orDisease Control, has also beenasked to review the potential

health risks rom waste-to-energy emissions.

It is expected to report back by the end o August and Penner saidhe will consider those ndings aswell.

Once the minister approves aplan it must then be rati ed by individual city councils, which areresponsible or waste collectionand commit under the plan todeliver key initiatives like organic

ood waste pickup. jnagel@surreyleader.

FridayJune 4 2010 Surrey North Delta Lead

Waste plan: Final say belongs to ministerFrom page 17

ARNALDO RODRIGUE

An aerial view of the Cache Creek Landll.

SINCE ENVIRONMENTminister Barry Penner hasthe nal say on where Metro Vancouvers garbagegoes, several rms hope to in uence his decision sothey can pro t rom what will be a lucrative waste-handling contract.

Belkorp Environmental Services, which got thegreen light rom Penner to expand the Cache Creek land ll, could be a virtual shoe-in i the min-ister strikes waste-to-energy options romMetros solid waste management plan.

Belkorp employs two men who had Pre-mier Gordon Campbells trust or years oncritical decisions.

Ken Dobell, who was once the premiersdeputy minister and special adviser, isregistered as an active lobbyist or Belkorpto plead the case or continued use o CacheCreek regional land ll with both Penner andthe premier.

Gary Collins, the provinces nance min-ister or the B.C. Liberals rst three years in power, isBelkorps senior vice-president.

Belkorp has also contributed more than $100,000to the B.C. Liberals over the past ve years, ElectionsBC records show.

An even bigger donor is Vancouver Canucksowner Francesco Aquilini, whose rm AquiliniRenewable Energy is behind a proposal to build awaste incinerator on sawwassen First Nation land.

Individually or via his companies, Aquilini has

is one Covanta Energy hopes to build at the site o aormer pulp mill at Gold River on Vancouver Island.Te New Jersey-based rm had a ormer B.C.

Liberal party president lobbying Penner on its behal up until last year.

Covanta already has all environmental permits inplace and only requires a deal with Metro. It would be

a likely rontrunner i Metro is barred rombuilding an in-region waste-to-energy plantbut is permitted to send waste to an out-o -region one.

Te Cement Association o Canada is alsolobbying Penner.

Local cement plants have a stake inwhether Metros plan allows them to con-tinue burning wood waste or potentially tobegin burning re use-derived uel. Switchin

rom coal allows them to save money andclaim big greenhouse gas reductions.

Rabanco, the U.S. operator o a land ll inWashington State that wants Metro waste, also has aregistered lobbyist pressing the province to relax itsstance against garbage exports.

Other rms with registered lobbyists include onethat wants to build an anaerobic digester to process

ood waste.Penner said his decision wont be in uenced by

lobbying or corporate donations.Several Metro directors say theyve been lobbied

requently by various proponents over the past couple

Lobbyists grapple or garbage

Barry Penner

Trash Talk series

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