The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
City council is mum on the findings of an over-budget study that could have major implications for the Flin Flon landfill. Last year, on orders from the Manitoba government, council commissioned a study that examined, among other things, the remaining lifespan of the refuse site. The study is now complete but council is not discussing the results until the province wraps up its review of the findings. 'Depending on how the province reacts to it, we will probably have the elected officials coming forth with a statement of the situation as it stands now, but right now it would probably be premature,' Municipal Administrator Mark Kolt said at Tuesday's council meeting. 'It's not exactly a situation where it's before the courts, but it's the next best thing and it would be difficult to comment on it elaborately at this point.' Kolt said that while the study meets provincial requirements, any study has the potential of outlining further elements that could be followed up on. For the city, a concern with a study of this nature is its potential to indicate the landfill has either reached, or soon will reach, the end of its lifespan. While that is only a hypothetical, council has expressed apprehension over perceived pressure from the province to move toward a costly regional landfill, possibly in The Pas, if the local landfill is no longer viable. The province has in turn said that though it supports the concept of 'regional solid waste planning systems,' Flin Flon would not be forced into such a program. Another possibility is that since the study examined the environmental safety of the landfill, it could force costly upgrades on the cash-strapped municipality. As if to underscore the unrelenting fiscal challenges facing the city, the now-completed landfill study cost roughly $100,000. That's about 46 per cent higher than the $68,332 originally budgeted to hire CH2M Hill, an American-based consulting company. See 'Added' on pg. Continued from pg. Kolt said the study entailed additional costs involving drilling, and the initial budget did include 'some flex numbers' for such cost items. 'I won't say that anything like that would have come as a complete surprise, but it certainly was larger than the original (budget),' he said. In awarding the contract for the study last year, council selected CH2M even though another firm put in a bid that was nearly $22,000 lower. Coun. Skip Martin was alone in his opposition to hiring CH2M. Not only was it the higher bid, he said, but it did not factor in field investigation work. But Coun. Bill Hanson defended the choice of CH2M, saying the other firm's bid was 'only cheaper on paper.' For his part, Coun. Tim Babcock said Director of Works and Operations Rick Bacon 'was more comfortable with' CH2M.
