Region 6 Solid Waste Management is an inter-municipal liaison on behalf of 13 municipal units: including: the towns of: Shelburne, Lockeport, Bridgewater, Lunenburg, Mahone Bay, Clark's Harbour and Windsor and the municipality districts of: West Hants, Chester, Lunenburg, Shelburne, Barrington and the Region of Queens.
The Lunenburg Regional Recycling and Composting Facility was built for and currently processes approx. 10,000
tonnes of organic waste per year.
This total is comprised of organic waste from all Shelburne County, Queens County and Lunenburg County. Some business wastes are also part of that total. As well, some business wastes go elsewhere (Pierce Fisheries in Lockeport sends their crab waste to a private facility in Aylesford, and the schools from that area send all their waste to Yarmouth).
Regional coordinator Valda Walsh says the study was an investigation of options to handle the amount of organics currently being dealt with in Lunenburg with the addition of organics generated in Chester and Windsor.
“This would put the tonnage over the limit of 10,000 tonnes, which is the certified ceiling for the facility in Lunenburg,” she said.
“With annual growth in the tonnage and the potential of biosolids needing a home from water and waste water plants after 2010, the amount could be as much as 14,600 tonnes,” she said.
Walsh added that the report also pointed out that a costing arrangement similar to that handled by a commission or authority (like Waste Check in Region 7) would benefit if Region 6 decided to proceed as a committee to look at building a new facility.
Councillor Sean Strang sits on the Region 6 committee representing the Municipality of Barrington. He shared details of the report at the March 16 committee of the whole meeting.
Some of the options for handling the projected compost volumes included adding onto the existing Lunenburg facility at a cost of $3.5 million, building another at a new site for $5 million or diverting compost to one of 18 existing sites in the province.
“My thoughts are that the cheapest way to go about this, especially to justify the taxpayers right now, would be to use the existing 18 sites until they create another one,” said Strang.
“I think we should say no to building a site and no to an authority at this time. Right now the cheaper way to do it would be to ship it to Yarmouth composting facility, which is already available. Especially with the downturn in the economy and everything right now, that’s the last thing you’d want hanging over your head I would think,” said Strang.
Study examines options for Region 6 waste
By Carla Allen THE COAST GUARD NovaNewsNow.com An issue addressed by a $50,000 study on options for handling organics generated in Region 6 remains unresolved at the steering level and has been directed back to a technical committee for further recommendations.
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