Peace and Environment News* April 2000
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Peace and Environment News * April 2000 |
by Ruby Isaacs
 Garbage on its first step to becoming part of the leachate problem. Photo: Ruby Isaacs. |
If a proposed leachate pipeline is built, vast quantities of toxic liquid may flow underground through your neighbourhood.
"Leachate is rain water and melted snow that has filtered through decaying garbage in the landfill," as defined by the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton (RMOC). The water becomes laced with chemicals, such as benzene, chlorine, and arsenic, as it percolates through the waste. If the resulting leachate is not collected and treated, the surrounding ground water becomes contaminated.
Currently, garbage from Ottawa-Carleton residents is transported to the Trail Road Landfill Facility, off Moodie Drive in Nepean. Discarded products are crushed and covered to prevent animals, birds, and the wind from littering nearby property.
Across the road from the Trail Road Landfill Facility, leachate has already moved beyond the west and south boundaries of the old Nepean dump and threatens to contaminate the ground water of nearby residential and farm land. RMOC staff are examining various methods to collect, distribute, and treat the leachate.
Instead of trucking increasing volumes of leachate off the landfill site for treatment at the Robert O. Pickard Environmental Centre in Gloucester, the RMOC proposes building a pipeline to transport the leachate to a main entry point in the sewer system. Toxic leachate will flow to a discharge location and then into the sewer system. The three possible discharge locations are: Barrhaven Trunk behind Mother Teresa High School, West Rideau Collector near Hearts Desire, and Richmond Forcemain on Eagleson Road between Richmond Road and Kanata.
In February, about 60 residents participated in an open house and roundtable discussion on the leachate issue at the waste facility on Trail Road.
According to Dave McCartney, Manager of the Environmental Projects Branch in the Regional Environment and Transportation Department, the best technology available is a high density polyethylene pipe with a diameter of 20 cm buried 2.4 m deep. The leachate will flow through the pipe, under a pressure of 50 to 80 psi, which is similar to the pressure in water distribution pipes. To guard against leaks, a computerized alarm system will continuously monitor the pipeline. A common danger could be the rupture of the pipe by excavation equipment operated by residents who don't use the Call Before You Dig program.
Joe King of the Barrhaven Sewer Action Committee (BSAC) is absolutely opposed to a leachate pipeline. For BSAC, it is an environmental issue. Joe thinks a leachate pipeline is environmentally unsafe and simply transports a problem. "If you take it to a sewer it goes right through the heart of downtown Ottawa. All they're talking about is getting a route to a sewer. Once you get it to the sewer, it goes through the rest of the city." He adds that "the problem is there's no treatment stream at the Pickard centre to treat leachate and as a result we send known carcinogens down the Ottawa River. We're doing that now."
An alternative to a leachate pipeline is on-site treatment. Joe lists several options: "construct a wetland on-site; evaporation followed by anaerobic digestion; poplar forestation; and geranium plantations." In 1996, "the Dillon report suggested constructing a wetland for treating the contaminated ground water."
However, Pat McNally, Director of the Solid Waste Division, points out that "few municipalities treat leachate on-site to the point where it can be discharged to the environment. Only a limited number of communities have on-site treatment suitable for discharge."
Jan Harder, a Nepean councillor, supports on-site management. In her opinion, cost and timing are key here. "Cost, however, is probably the main reason why on-site treatment has not been explored."
Joe King explains that the RMOC took a survey of the region's residents last year. "They found that over 74 percent of residents felt that the environment was more important than the cost. So that's the region's own findings, but apparently they don't care about that. Because they're going to do stuff that's not environmentally friendly, anyway."
Molly McGoldrick-Larsen, the regional councillor for Bell-South Nepean, encourages public consultation and emphasizes that "everybody in Ottawa-Carleton contributes to that landfill site and should take responsibility for the contents of it."
For information on proposed leachate pipeline routes, readers can contact the Public Liaison Committee. For leachate treatment research, contact the Technical Advisory Committee. For both, call the RMOC at 560-1335. Or search their Web site at city.ottawa.on.ca/index_en.html
Ruby Isaacs is a writer living in Ottawa.
Converted May 14, 2000 - Lg
To follow up on this article, contact the author or the organizations/individuals mentioned; do not contact the Peace and Environment Resource Centre - we cannot provide follow up or contact information. This article is an archival copy of the printed one in the Peace and Environment News (PEN). Viewpoints expressed should not be taken to represent the opinions of the Peace and Environment Resource Centre, the PEN, or our supporters.
