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Cache Creek landfill extension certificate and closure plan being appealed

Hearings for the closure plan appeal have been pushed back to October 2017, with another week of hearings in February 2018.
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Hearings regarding the appeal of the landfill closure plan have been pushed back to October 2017.

Hearings into appeals of the operation closure plan and the closure period plan of the Cache Creek landfill have been moved from March and April 2017 to October and November 2017, with a further week of hearings scheduled for February 2018, says Cache Creek mayor John Ranta.

“The two documents were approved by the statutory approving officer, A.J. Downie,” says Ranta. However, both were appealed late last year by the Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District, which is a local government board of Metro Vancouver, the landfill’s biggest user until it closed last year.

Ranta says he took part in a conference call with the chair of the Environmental Appeal Board, as well as lawyers and representatives from interested parties. “The lawyer for Metro Vancouver indicated he needed additional time to prepare. He has asked for 20,000 pages of documents from the government and from Wastech.”

The main issue for Metro Vancouver appears to be the cost of a groundwater collection and treatment system that needs to be built in order to remediate contaminated groundwater at the site. The cost of that system is estimated to be at least $6 million, with the total cost of remediation at the site estimated to be at least $13 million.

An operational certificate for the proposed landfill extension, which was issued in December 2016, has also been appealed. “The operational certificate was issued, revisions were made to the Thompson-Nicola Regional District’s (TNRD) Solid Waste Management Plan, and an environmental certificate was issued,” says Ranta. However, the appeal is now before the Environmental Appeal Board.

The TNRD, which had no hand in the operation of the landfill, stepped in in December 2016 to manage the residential drop-off (RDO) at the landfill and set up a transfer station for municipal waste.

There have been no changes to the municipal garbage collection schedule in Cache Creek and Ashcroft; the recycling depots in both communities have remained in place; winter hours (10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday) have stayed the same; and materials accepted at the RDO have not changed.

Municipal waste is now being trucked from Cache Creek to the TNRD landfill at Heffley Creek, north of Kamloops. Most items commonly taken to the landfill, such as garden waste and recyclables, are being accepted at no charge to residents, and there will be a free waste disposal day at the RDO on Saturday, April 22, giving residents an opportunity to safely dispose of one load of items that they would normally be charged for. The Villages of Cache Creek and Ashcroft are also both going ahead with a special spring pick-up (during the week of April 24 in Ashcroft, and early in May in Cache Creek).