What does the Cache Creek landfill extension mean?

Once again the province has foiled Metro Vancouver's effort to expand its garbage empire.

Metro has been active for well over a decade trying to build huge new regional garbage disposal facilities, and now twice the province has intervened. It isn't at all clear what the province's motives are.

In June 2005 the EA process to approve the then-GVRD's Ashcroft Landfill was suddenly suspended by the Minister of Sustainable Resource Management George Abbott. GVRD had spent $4.5 million to purchase Ashcroft Ranch and a further $5.5 million on consultants and spin-doctors pushing the project forward.

The official spin on this decision was that the province didn't want to offend First Nations who opposed the project, but the Ministry's Brian Grant had advised in a 2003 letter to the EAO that this project was not approved under the region's 1995 Solid Waste Management Plan.

We were all surprised when Metro suddenly abandoned the Ashcroft project in early 2008 and announced it was planning to build incinerators instead.

No one was madder about that than the City of Vancouver and Wastech Services, who were running profitable landfills serving our region's needs. The City of Vancouver immediately commissioned Deloitte Touche to write a report on the financial impacts on the city if Metro shut down the Burns Bog landfill and Wastech has carried out a very effective behind-the-scenes information campaign against incineration.

A central plank in Metro's garbage empire strategy has been trumping up a "landfill crisis." The fear of being buried under a wall of garbage in 2010 drove the Metro Board to grudgingly approve exporting our surplus garbage to the USA until Metro's new disposal facilities were in place.

This past weekend Environment Minister Barry Penner hinted on CKNW that Wastech's Cache Creek landfill might not close next year as scheduled and yesterday Wastech announced that a 2-year extension of the landfill's permit has been approved by Penner's ministry.

Metro claims to be as furious about this development as they were when the province shut down the Ashcroft project. Speaking after Minister Penner on the CKNW radio show on Saturday, Metro Waste Committee Chair Marvin Hunt asked how the Ministry could reject Ashcroft on the grounds of First Nations objections while approving the Cache Creek extension -- pointing out that the First Nations are just as divided in their opinion about Cache Creek.

Point scored, but it won't win the game for Metro.

Unless what's really going on is some deeper collusion between Metro and the provincial government aimed around their shared vision of garbage-to-energy incineration.

Pic: card tricks

Agricultural Urbanism

Last summer Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan requested a report telling the Metro Vancouver Board how much money the taxpayer had thrown away on its now-abandoned plan to build a new landfill in the BC Interior. That report started making its rounds of Metro Board Committees this week (see Item 6.1 on the Finance Committee Agenda).

The news is pretty bad. We've sunk $12.6 million into an agricultural operation that is now valued at $10.8 million. Richmond Councillor Harold Steves (himself a cattle rancher) commented to the Vancouver Sun, "The [cattle] producers in B.C. are just going broke," but recommended that Metro hang on to the land and continue working the ranch: "It's one of the most productive ranches in the Cariboo when times are good."

Who ever thought our regional government would get in the business of cattle ranching?

It's not as outlandish an idea as it might seem. A report went to the Metro Agriculture Committee last week (see Item 6.7 on the meeting Agenda) arguing convincingly that municipal and regional governments should incorporate agriculture and the food system into their planning.

But I suspect the last thing the new group of Agricultural Urbanists had in mind was building a garbage landfill on a cattle ranch. Nor, I imagine, did they have in mind garbage incinerators adjacent to Agricultural Land Reserve property here in our own region, like the Burnaby incinerator pictured above.

Much more in the Agricultural Urbanist direction was a very cursory report to the Metro Waste Management Committee (see Item 5.2 on the meeting agenda) that Metro is finally in negotiations with two companies to open food waste composting plants in the region. Staff wouldn't divulge much to the curious committee members but Black Press reporter Jeff Nagel obtained details that were reported in the Surrey Leader.

These two composting facilities, if they are run right, could be a tangible way we can all participate in Agricultural Urbanism. And Councillor Harold Steves, who sits on both the Agriculture and Waste Management committees could help us get there.

When our food waste goes to local farms and everything else goes back to the producers for repair, reuse, or recycling, we can gradually decommission our current landfill and incinerator.

Metro Vancouver cancels Ashcroft Landfill project ~ no future landfill in the Interior

Members of the Metro Vancouver Waste Management Committee were stunned by the recommendation in a report sent to them within hours of their meeting today to "abandon" the concept of shipping our garbage to a new landfill in the Interior.

Commissioner Johnny Carline's report says the long search for a replacement landfill in the Interior finally ran afoul of the New Relationship between First Nations and the provincial government. "Without the support of applicable First Nations, the continuation of a process which will ultimately require Provincial approval will be futile."

The Committee approved his recommendation that the region "abandon" all plans for a landfill in the Interior "and instead focus its attention and efforts on the Zero Waste Challenge, the establishment of local composting and waste-to-energy [emphasis added] processing capacity, and the use of the Vancouver Landfill and/or Washingon State landfill(s) for the disposal of any residuals."

Vancouver Councillor Peter Ladner wanted more details about the implications for his city but the other key stakeholder, Delta Mayor Lois Jackson, expressed firm support for the recommendation. Metro Vancouver will strike a task force with representatives of both cities to work out the details of the Vancouver landfill's future.

Both cities are likely to benefit from this development. The mayor of Cache Creek, on the other hand, made an impromptu appeal to the committee not to abandon the possibility of bringing our waste to an expanded facility in his village ~ a suggestion that was politely turned down.

The committee then went on to pre-view a Draft Discussion Document on a Strategy for Updating the Solid Waste Management Plan that proposed programs and actions to raise our waste diversion from 52% to 70%. The committee members were over the moon to finally be discussing waste reduction rather than disposal.

But the elephant in the room was Climate Change. The Draft Discussion Document enshrines "the 4th R" (waste-to-energy) as a a key component of the proposed plan, pitching waste as "non-fossil based energy" ~ an assertion that ignores the embodied energy, to say nothing of fossil carbon physically present in today's waste.

The public will be invited to comment in March and April, when we can tell them that we're happy our waste isn't going to the Interior ~ but we don't want it to go in the sky either.

New Year's Resolution ~ stop Ashcroft landfill

If this were your backyard, would you want half-a-million tonnes of someone else's garbage dumped there? Metro Vancouver staff and contractors seem determined to build a 100-year landfill in these beautiful hills. It's time they checked in with us, the citizens of this region.

The Cornwall Keepers are asking for our help.

BACKGROUND

In 2000, GVRD puchased Ashcroft Ranch (price $4.5 million) and announced a plan to build a landfill there for our garbage. No-one asked us if we wanted to send our garbage to someone else's backyard.

From 2000 to 2005, GVRD carried out expensive procedures seeking provincial approval for the landfill. No-one asked us if we supported the project.

In June 2005, the Minister of Environment suspended the approval process saying "an amendment to the GVRD's solid waste management plan is required for the project to proceed." No-one has asked us if we wanted to amend our waste plan.

Last month Metro Vancouver staff set aside $6 million in the 2008 budget to continue preparations for building the landfill at Ashcroft, despite the suspension. This is on top of hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain agricultural operations on the ranch. No-one asked us if we want to put good money after bad into this project.

As 2007 draws to a close, there are signs of change at Metro Vancouver. The political leaders in our region are beginning to have second thoughts about shipping our garbage out of the region. They forced their staff to find $40 million for the 2008 budget for composting (incredibly, staff had not allocated a nickel for this priority.) They have approved tough new disposal bans that will come into effect on January 1st. They are betting we are ready to get serious about reducing waste.

Zero Waste Vancouver was formed to give the citizens of this region a voice, finally, in how our waste is managed. For too long, Metro Vancouver has made it easy to be wasteful, sending our garbage up the Fraser Canyon to someone else's backyard. We are the most wasteful urban region in the province. It's time to acknowledge this and do something about it. The people who live in our "wasteshed" deserve no less.

You can lend them your support right now by visiting the Cornwall Keepers website and signing their petition.