LASQUETI ISLAND SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE AGENDA. Thursday, July 7, :00 P.M. Lasqueti Island

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1 LASQUETI ISLAND SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE AGENDA Thursday, July 7, :00 P.M. Lasqueti Island Page 1. APPROVAL OF AGENDA 2. ADOPTION OF MINUTES 2.1 Minutes of June 17, DELEGATIONS & INQUIRIES 4. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 5. CORRESPONDENCE 6. ITEMS OF BUSINESS 6.1 Preparation for community meeting agenda & tasks 6.2 Subcommittee reports 7. NEW BUSINESS 8. NEXT MEETING 9. QUESTION PERIOD 10. ADJOURNMENT Page 1 of 5

2 DRAFT POWELL RIVER REGIONAL DISTRICT LASQUETI ISLAND SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES June The LASQUETI ISLAND SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE meeting was held at the North End Fire Hall on Friday, June 17, 2016 commencing at 1:00 PM Present: Gordon Scott Brigitte Dorner Gail Fleming Natty Violini Dave Olsen Julie Newton - Free Store Employee Robyn Dryburgh Solid Waste Contractor Merrick Anderson - Electoral Area E Director Community members present: David Ham Hilary Duinker Aigul Kukolj 1. APPROVAL OF AGENDA R. Dryburgh / G. Scott THAT the agenda be approved. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 2. ADOPTION OF MINUTES 2.1. Minutes of June 2 nd, 2016 R. Dryburgh / J. Newton THAT the minutes of June 2 nd 2016 be adopted. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 3. DELEGATIONS & INQUIRIES 4. UNFINISHED BUSINESS The honorarium for the regular I&T column has been making its way through the PRRD system and should hopefully be available soon. 5. CORRESPONDENCE Page 2 of 5

3 6. ITEMS OF BUSINESS 6.1. Meeting with Maura Walker and Mike Wall questions and preparation for community meeting Maura Walker and Mike Wall arrived on the first ferry and spent the morning with M. Anderson, G. Scott, and B. Dorner checking in on landfill, free store, and recycling centre, visiting the ship yard, and checking out some potential sites for future waste management facilities. A conversation with Jim Millicheap held at the shipyard was relayed at the meeting. The current accumulation of auto hulks and metal scap is unintended and largely a consequence of StormAway only being able to take part of the pile at their last trip to Scotty Bay. The owners of the shipyard are hoping to clean up the area and do not want the site to be used as a collection facility for hulks in the future. The ramp on the property might potentially be available for shipping of recyclables and residual waste, but this would have to be negotiated with the land partners. In the afternoon, Mike and Maura joined LISWMAC for a full meeting of the committee to answer questions and plan for the upcoming community meeting. Maura filled us in on how recycling depots and free stores are run in other small communities. There is often a strong culture of community participation and a lot of volunteer support, though volunteer burnout tends to be an issue. Our waste management employees expressed a preference against increased volunteer involvement, due to negative experiences in the past. There has been a general trend towards recycling centres that are open only when staff is present. The general experience with unstaffed depots is that approximately half of the material coming out of these depots is contaminated and needs to be disposed of as residual waste. Contamination is a major concern on Lasqueti as well, and our waste management staff would welcome the opportunity to educate consumers and help them navigate the hows and whys of sorting and preparing items for recycling, and restricting access would likely make it easier to keep the recycling centre clean and welcoming. The main argument against restricting hours is that making it harder to drop off recycling could set the wrong incentives. Making it less convenient to recycle might discourage people from recycling and might result in more backyard dumping and ultimately potential loss of local employment opportunities if the recycling centre becomes underutilized. In addition, staff may end up having to deal with an increased volume of unsorted recycling and miscellaneous waste dropped off outside the gate. On the question of privately-run facilities, Maura emphasized that almost all are run as public facilities, though there are a few examples of private operators. Bowen Island has a well-established privately-run facility subsidized by public money which has strong community support. The recycling centre in Tofino is run by a private operator, who also does curbside collection of recyclables. There are also examples of privately-run recycling centres in remote places that charge for drop-off, for example the one in Terrace. Maura brought to our attention that the southern Gulf Islands (Maine, Saltspring, Pender, Saturna, Galiano), have formed a recycling coalition to share experiences and expertise and give themselves a stronger voice in negotiating waste management issues. Lasqueti may be able to benefit from this coalition by taking advantage of some of their resources, or by becoming a formal member. Mike, who is a resident of Savary Island, answered some questions about the Savary situation. Savary currently has no on-island solid waste management services. Residents take all their recycling to the Page 3 of 5

4 depot in Lund, and their residual waste to dumpsters near the ferry terminal on the Lund side. Savary winter population is roughly comparable to that of Lasqueti, though permanent residents are well outnumbered by part-timers and vacationers. Mike s experience is that the permanent population tends to want increased service levels, while summer residents tend to be more concerned about keeping taxes to a minimum. Savary has some problems with dumping, especially on or near the dock. The dumping is primarily a summertime issue, and Mike believes the offenders tend to be summer folks, rather than year-round residents. The committee asked Maura and Mike why keeping the landfill open was the direction taken in drafting up the Lasqueti Island Solid Waste Management Plan, even though the 2011 survey indicated a community preference for a transfer station. The reason was a mix of financial considerations and bureaucratic inertia, both favouring the status quo. Since the margin in favour of the transfer station was slim, there didn t seem to be a lot of pressure to take action on building a transfer station. In trying to understand our options with regard to the landfill, potential future capacity is a big factor. Robyn estimates 5-10 years, based on current operation. Maura s estimate is years, with the understanding that the scrap metal pile would be removed and scrap metal would be collected somewhere else. However, the viability of the landfill ultimately depends on test results from monitoring wells, as well as approval from MoE. MoE response is difficult to predict, even assuming the tests are done in a way that meets MoE requirements and the test results are, and continue to be, favourable. One option we may want to consider is building a transfer station, but plan on depositing residual waste on the Lasqueti landfill instead of having it shipped out for as long as possible. This could alleviate some concerns regarding dumping of non-inert materials on our landfill and perhaps make it viable for longer by reducing waste volume. The committee impressed on Mike that water testing and installation of monitoring wells at the landfill should be made a priority. Mike will look into whether there is enough money in the budget to bring back the engineer who did the site evaluation in 2011 to finalize the sampling protocol. A possible request for funding from Community Works came up as an alternative route to bring in the engineer and get testing under way if there is not enough money in this year s budget to do so. The committee asked Mike and Maura for ballpark estimates on volumes and costs that might be helpful for framing the discussion at the community meeting. Lasqueti generated approximately 19t of recycling last year. This is the amount we shipped to MMBC. It does not include contaminated or nonrecyclable materials that had to be removed and shipped to the other side as residual waste, and thus does not reflect the full volume shipped from the recycling centre. Mike Wall estimates the cost of disposing of recyclables at $400-$600/t for remote communities. This is after money received for the recyclables under MMBC is taken into account. Our costs will likely be substantially higher, since we will not be able to take advantage of MMBC payments. The estimate of residual waste produced per resident is 50kg/person/year, well below the provincial target of 250kg/person/year. However, the estimate for Lasqueti is based on volume collected at the Lasqueti landfill, and thus probably underestimates the actual volume created on island by a substantial amount. Maura believes that the cost estimates she put together for the 2011 Lasqueti Island Solid Waste Management Plan are still essentially applicable and useful as ballpark figures. One key concern for the PRRD is that Lasqueti waste management facilities need to meet WCB requirements. The key requirements relevant to site selection and building construction are washrooms and availability of potable water, though the requirement for potable water can be met by providing a water cooler. Washroom facilities do not necessarily have to be in the same building, and Mike believes Page 4 of 5

5 that the distance from the free store/recycling centre to the Judith Fisher Centre would be acceptable. There is no well-defined standard for acceptable distance, however. Whether two buildings are considered close enough to share a washroom would depend on the subjective judgment of the WCB officer. Mike and Maura both graciously agreed to attend the community meeting on July 12. Since the committee would like to keep the main focus on letting the community speak and ask questions, we would like to keep presentations to a minimum. Mike and Maura will be available for the informal discussion and one-on-one question period at the beginning at the meeting and will give a brief overview of legal and WCB requirements and expectations from the ministry we have to meet, as well as the current waste management planning process and the PRRD budget process. Mike will also bring information on average costs for facilities, as well as examples of eco-depot one-stop facilities Subcommittee reports 6.3. Review and revise draft survey The committee went over the survey questions with Maura and Mike and received several valuable comments. Maura pointed out that free stores are a better fit with a transfer station than a recycling centre, since a good portion of what gets dropped off at a free store ultimately has to be deposited as residual waste, whereas there is little overlap with recycling. Thus, it makes sense to include a freestore-plus-transfer-station into the survey. B. Dorner will revise the survey to incorporate additional information brought up during the meeting and create an online version. R. Dryburgh and H. Duinker will organize printing and mailing for the mailout version. R. Dryburgh will try to get the Lasqueti Rate Payers Association mailing list to reach a maximum audience. 7. NEXT MEETING The next meeting will be July 7 th 5pm 7pm at the Free Store. 8. QUESTION PERIOD 9. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 3:27 p.m. G. Scott, Chair Page 5 of 5