The scale house and scale are in place and ready to go at the Western Regional Landfill site to the south of Highway 7 about 10 kilometres west of Kindersley. A landfill official says the board hopes to announce the opening date later this month. The landfill has 19 founding member municipalities.
Kenneth Brown
of The Crossroads
A group of 19 urban and rural municipalities are founding members of a new regional landfill west of Kindersley. The landfill is close to opening its gates.
The Western Regional Landfill Inc. (WRLI), the official name of the organization in charge of the waste management facility, was first incorporated in June 2013, and the landfill that goes by the same name is nearly ready to open its gates roughly five years later.
The landfill is located about 10 kilometres west of Kindersley just south of Highway 7. The Town of Kindersley owned the land where the landfill is located and WRLI purchased the land back in March 2017. The land was destined to be a landfill.
In 2002, the Town of Kindersley had a site suitability assessment completed on the land in the Teo Lakes area. Clifton Associates Ltd., an engineering firm, did the assessment and the land was deemed suitable for a landfill. Nothing much happened with the land until it was targeted by WRLI.
[emember_protected for=”2″ custom_msg=’For more on this story, please see this week’s print edition of The Cross Roads.’]
Another assessment was completed on the land by Stantec, a consulting firm, in 2015 and the corporation received positive results from the assessment report. The land was chosen to be the site for the new landfill.
The landfill has been developed by Loraas Environmental Services Ltd., a company based in North Battleford, and a contractor was hired to move the dirt more than a year ago. Officials held a sod turning ceremony at the landfill site on Aug. 30, 2017. The landfill is a couple of approvals away from opening up.
Curtis Sackville, the president of WRLI, has been involved with the project since he was a councillor in Kindersley. The town appointed Sackville to the WRLI board and he said it is an exciting time for the members with the landfill set to open up soon.
“It’s nice,” the WRLI president said, recognizing that the corporation has not announced an opening date and landfill officials hope to make the announcement sometime before the end of September because “we are very close.”
He noted that project officials are putting the finishing touches on the site. It is important for people to be able to move around easily, so the developer is making sure the site is accessible for the public. Sackville said the site also has to be safe for people to get around.
The scale house and the scale have been set up, and the scale house is located near the entrance to the waste facility. The site is ready to receive waste, but officials still have to obtain a license from the ministry of environment.
“The pit, itself, is ready to receive material,” Sackville said, recognizing that the geosynthetic liner has been set in place inside the landfill cell. “Of course, we have to wait on our license from the ministry. We do an application to them, and then put it in their good hands now that we’ve got the majority of the project complete.”
He said the ministry is aware that an application will be made soon and he hopes the licensing process is quick, but landfill officials do not know how long it will take to obtain the license and related permit to operate.
The WRLI president said getting the cell lined was a major milestone for the corporation, so getting the liner in place is a big step in the process and the most important part of the project. A violent wind and rain storm on July 10 compromised the lining process and it was a setback to the project, he said.
“The liner wasn’t affected, but the base underneath the liner was affected,” he said, recognizing that a proper seal could not be formed due to eroded soil. “We needed to take the time to actually repack it and repair it in a few spots.”
The landfill’s initial cell is anticipated to last for eight years, and another half cell has also been developed. Sackville said the road going to the landfill from Highway 7 has been built up for heavy vehicles, but it would need to be used to get packed down properly.
He said the board does not want to go back to its founding members for more money, so it is important for the corporation to charge adequate tipping fees to allow the landfill to keep operating well into the future.
Mayor Rod Perkins of Kindersley said the town is excited about the possibility of the landfill opening its gates early this fall. Town officials have yet to decide when the town’s old landfill will be decommissioned, but it is nice to be approaching the end of one major project.
“We’ve had a lot of projects on the go here,” the mayor said, referring the town’s future aquatic centre and fire hall as examples. “This is number one that we’re going to get stroked off the list, which is great.”
Tim Richelhoff, reeve of the RM of Prairiedale, said the regional landfill project is “very important” for the municipality. He recognized that although waste is not the most exciting topic, it is exciting to be nearing the end of construction.
He noted that Prairiedale has a contract with Waste Management and the municipality uses the transfer station model, so ratepayers take their household waste to a transfer site and it gets picked up by the company. The municipality is at the company’s mercy if it decides to increase its fees, so it is nice to have stake in the landfill.
Bradley Sander, reeve of the RM of Lacadena, said the municipality is exploring the feasibility of developing its own new landfill, but officials believed it was important to continue the involvement with the WRLI project and board.
“We also want to have some options to get rid of some stuff that, maybe, we don’t want to put in our landfill,” he said, recognizing that construction waste takes up a lot of space in landfills and the regional landfill would be a good place for construction waste.
Council members believed it was in the best interest of the municipality to stay involved, Sander said. He added that the regional landfill is a benefit to Lacadena and its ratepayers. The municipality jointly operates a landfill with the Town of Kyle.
[/emember_protected] 
