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.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Flin Flon garbage may eventually have to be shipped to a regional landfill in The Pas if a study finds the local dump has run its course. That's the word from city council, and while nothing has been set in stone, the scenario is raising serious financial concerns. 'If you think we're wasting money, wait and see what would happen if (we) had to ship every darn (piece of garbage we) have to The Pas, because that is the option that's being put forward to us,' Mayor George Fontaine said recently in response to concerns that spending at the dump is too high. 'And that is totally unaffordable.' He said the provincial government is 'pushing towards regionalization' of landfills, 'which makes sense in some places that are a little closer together than us (and) The Pas.' Since the local terrain is not 'particularly conducive' to regulations for new landfills, Mayor Fontaine said The Pas would make more sense as the location for a regional dump in this area. Under such a scenario, he said, Flin Flon would have a 'transfer station' from which trash would be shipped south. Mayor Fontaine said that system would dwarf the cost of the present landfill 'in multiples.' Municipal Administrator Mark Kolt agreed with the mayor's assessment that a regional landfill is a possibility. 'I think that (Manitoba) Conservation has repeatedly brought up a regional landfill,' Kolt said, 'and once you look at a regional landfill on the Manitoba side, in order to get physical characteristics that would make it easy to do without lots of additional expenses _ berms and things to contain potential leaching _ the terrain getting closer to The Pas has got some advantages.' Pressure Coun. Bill Hanson took the perceived pressure from the government as its 'way of saying, 'This is the way it's going to go.'' But Kolt made it clear that while the province has made 'repeated suggestions' that the city look at a regional landfill model, there is no legislation to compel such a development. 'At this point there's no outright order,' he said. The city was recently told by the province to commission a study of the local landfill that, among other things, will determine the remaining lifespan. Mayor Fontaine said if there were a suitable location around Flin Flon for a new dump, then one could potentially be developed. 'But then there would be a shutdown charge with what we have, which is expensive, and creating a new (landfill) is expensive and our local conditions are not particularly conducive to the new regulations for dumps,' he said. Coun. Hanson recalled a study conducted in the mid-1990s found that a new Flin Flon landfill would cost, he believed, $8.4 million. But that was before new regulations came in, he said, noting that a new dump cannot be developed within one kilometre of a body of water. Mayor Fontaine made it clear his priority is to preserve the existing landfill. 'If we don't try and extend the life of our dump, then the cost of shutting down the dump will be extreme,' he said. A spokesperson for the province could not be reached for comment by press time.
