Plans for an organics composting facility adjacent to the current Campbell Mountain Landfill are ramping up. And the organization behind those plans, the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen (RDOS), is now actively pursuing public feedback.
A one-hour virtual town hall, scheduled for Sept 30th, will feature a panel of RDOS, City of Penticton and consulting and engineering firm representatives in a live phone-in format. Additionally, interested parties are encouraged to contact the RDOS with their questions and concerns through Oct 2nd.
The accumulated feedback will become part of a presentation to the RDOS Board, which then decides if the RDOS asks the Agricultural Land Commission to remove the parcel from the ALR (Agricultural Land Reserve). If removed, the project would then move forward through further hurdles such as rezoning.
With a final green light, the facility could be built in as little as a year.
To say it’s been a long road just to get to this point is an understatement. For more than a half-decade, the RDOS has searched for an appropriate hunk of land on which to build its proposed operation. Potential sites in both Marron Valley and Summerland, among others, were ultimately scuttled.
NIMBYism is a tough thing to overcome.
But the RDOS made its move when an 80-acre parcel at 1313 Greyback Mountain Road became available earlier this year.
Directly adjacent to the landfill but several meters above it on a plateau that hides it from view unless you climb its steep driveway, the former cattle ranch still looks the part and is absolutely enormous. The RDOS officially took ownership last week.
Going forward then, the question shifts from "Which site is best?" to "Should we remove this parcel from the ALR and proceed?" And that's essentially the feedback the RDOS currently seeks.
The proposed facility would appear to take care of a lot of issues. For starters, it'll handle wastewater solids -- the icky sewage gunk from water treatment plants and septic tanks.
Today, wastewater solids are trucked to the landfill, where they're processed into compost. But the current infrastructure is old and in need of immediate replacement.
Among other concerns, the current landfill's wastewater solids composting facility ineffectively manages "leachate," a toxic brew created principally when precipitation mixes with organic solids during the composting process.
It's bad news for everyone when leachate infiltrates soil and groundwater.
The City of Penticton has already committed to replacing the landfill's existing wastewater solids composting operation. But the RDOS says the new facility would not only handle that -- and in superior fashion, with 2020 tech all around and impermeable surfaces that prevent leachate generation -- it would also handle food and yard waste organics in a sort of mega-composting supercentre.
Food waste composting is a key new element. Right now, it's treated primarily as waste. Unless residents compost on their own property, they toss it in the garbage and send it off to the mountain of refuse that's formed at the landfill site.
By RDOS estimates, food waste and other organic materials account for approximately 40% of the waste entering landfills in the region.
But composting food waste at the new setup --which would likely involve residents sorting it from regular waste and placing it in a separate container for curbside pickup -- would mean those landfill mountains wouldn't grow as quickly.
Another advantage of the new facility, according to the RDOS, is its "in-vessel" format, which means both drop-off and active composting would take place inside large structures on the property. This would aid leachate management, and, perhaps just as importantly to those living nearby, odour control.
In all, the current level of odours is expected to see a 70% reduction once the new operation, which can theoretically handle 35,000 tons of organic material per year, comes on stream.
The RDOS also believes the proposed site, hidden as it is by trees and situated further up the mountain than the landfill, will be comparably inconspicuous. That it's on relatively flat land also means easier, cheaper development than some earlier alternatives.
And there are spinoff benefits. More compost would be produced for agriculture and homeowners. Landfill traffic hassles would be reduced because the new operation would have a separate entrance and exit.
Additionally, farmers and wine producers could now take their food waste to the site rather than composting or burying it on their own property.
Still, reasonable objections remain. Apart from leachate and odour issues, which the RDOS believes it's addressed, one of the most prevalent is the loss of ALR land.
Another is the rumoured belief that the landfill was slated to close before 2000. Not so, says the RDOS, indicating it's lifecycle isn't scheduled to end for nearly another century.
But if you do have concerns or questions, now is the time to register them.
Residents of the Campbell Mountain Service Area (including all or parts of Electoral Areas B, D, E, F, G, and I, the City of Penticton and the Village of Keremeos) can provide feedback until October 2nd by going to the RDOS Regional Connections website, calling 250-490-4129, emailing [email protected], or mailing RDOS at 101 Martin Street, Penticton, BC, V2A 5J9.
To watch the virtual town hall, which will unfold between 6 pm and 7 pm on Wednesday, Sept 30th, interested parties can go to the RDOS YouTube Channel, the RDOS Facebook page, or the Organics Composting Facility page of the RDOS Regional Connections website.
To ask a question or lodge a concern at the town hall, check the Organics Composting Facility page at the RDOS Regional Connections website or call 250-490-4129. The RDOS will have more information, including a dedicated phone number, shortly.
