City dump plan moving forward

$44M plan will improve ground-water system

Posted By BOB BRUTON

Posted 2 years ago

The changing face of Barrie's landfill site is changing again.

A $44-million, nine-year plan to re-engineer the Sandy Hollow landfill site, located west of Ferndale Drive North and north of Edgehill Drive, is moving forward.

It includes waste reclamation and the installation of an engineered liner system, to keep the liquids which percolate through the trash out of the soil.

With the exception of cell 3A, the base of the approved waste disposal area at the landfill is unlined. There is no impermeable barrier, natural or manmade, between the bottom of the landfill and the upper aquifer, or water table.

Sandy Hollow will continue to generate leachate many years after its scheduled closure, in 2025, which would have a significant impact on ground and surface water if not properly controlled.

Staff says installing base liners and leachate collection systems would better handle this leachate. In the long run, it would also eliminate the need for a purge well system and reduce the flow to Barrie's Water Pollution Control Centre on Bradford Street.

The landfill's purge well currently discharges about one million litres a day to the sanitary sewer system -- equal to what comes from about 1,300 single-family homes.

Existing waste is to be moved, sifted and re-organized while the liners are being installed.

"We will screen a lot of it. Things that weren't recyclable in the past are recyclable now," Hebert said, using tires as an example.

"And we'll shred the waste before we put it back."

Between this year and 2017, the price tag is $44 million -- although the leachate protection of the liners will extend well beyond the landfill's life span.

Last August, the city officially commissioned the final waste cell at Sandy Hollow. About 300,000 cubic metres of earth were removed from an area of almost two hectares (nearly five acres) to create the cell.

It included the installation of a double-lined geomembrane liner and groundwater protection system, designed so that it cannot be penetrated and provide long-term groundwater protection.

An under-drain was also installed inside the lined cell to collect water that drains through the waste and leachate, and send it to the city's sanitary sewer system for treatment.

This latest project involves costs for excavation, liners, equipment and engineering, as well as installing a landfill gas collection system.

Ontario's Environment Ministry has released a draft regulation that will require operating landfills with lifetime capacities of more than 1.5 cubic metres to install, maintain and operate gas collection systems. Sandy Hollow falls within this capacity.

This landfill has operated since the early 1960s, constructed in a former sand pit of almost 46 acres -- with a capacity of almost 138 million cubic feet for trash.

It has three waste cells, which are being filled from east to west. The beginning of Dyment's Creek and a wetland are located to the east and south of cell one.

City staff determined in 2005 the landfill would be full in 2015, based on fill rates at the time. But re-engineering of Sandy Hollow, reclamation and increased waste diversion are expected to extend its landfill for another decade, until 2025.

Organics collection, a one-bag limit for homes with a $2 charge for each additional bag, no tipping fee break at the landfill for charities, as well as the Blue Box program, have helped divert waste from the landfill, extending its lifespan.

Since 2005, the residential diversion rate has increased to 47 per cent from 36 per cent.

This project will be paid for through property taxes and user fees. Development charges cannot be used for waste management.

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