City of Powell River Council has adopted an amendment to the city zoning bylaw to allow for the planned resource-recovery centre.
At the Thursday, November 21, city council meeting, councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said it was a “pretty straightforward” amendment to the zoning bylaw to slightly expand the permitted civic use.
“It is a very much-needed project,” said Leishman. “Closure of our contaminated site will help facilitate it.”
She said if the city was to mitigate the former incinerator site land, the cost was estimated at upwards of $12 million if the city did not use grant funding qathet Regional District has secured for the cleanup.
“This is a much more cost-effective route to go in the build-out of the resource-recovery centre,” said Leishman.
She said the proposed resource-recovery centre will be modelled after a similar-type facility in Cowichan Valley, which she has toured.
“It’s almost a tourist attraction, it’s such a nice site,” said Leishman. “There’s lots of education around reusing materials. They have green roofs on all of the buildings and rainwater capture.”
Mayor Dave Formosa said the ministry of environment makes the city deal with closures of these waste dump sites.
“We have one we are dealing with and struggling with that we’re cringing on at the airport,” said Formosa. “We have to deal with it and we have no choice. This one is $12 some-odd-million and that’s why I support this so very much.”
He said he has supported the advancement of the resource-recovery centre because there is a very good chance the city could otherwise be on the hook for the cleanup on its own.
“Based on that I have to support this, plus I think it will be a great asset to the community,” added Formosa.
Councillor George Doubt said he concurs with the amendment and thinks the rezoning is a good idea. The resource-recovery centre is going in a good place, he said.
“We have to do something with our garbage,” added Doubt. “We collect it. It can’t continue going the current way south of town. We need to improve and be better with it.”
Doubt said the city currently has a liability in its financial statements of $4.27 million, which is the minimal cost for cleanup. He said if the property was going to be cleaned up to residential or park standard, it would cost the city about $12 million to do that.
“Then, we would still have to find a way to deal with the garbage,” said Doubt.
The operation of the new resource-recovery centre, when it is up and running, will be paid for by people throughout the regional district and taxpayers in the city, according to Doubt. It’s going to be paid for by tipping fees, which are going up five dollars every year for a period of three years.
“Approving the rezoning is a good way to get started and we can move on and hopefully get this new resource-recovery centre operating within the next couple of years,” said Doubt.
Once the site is closed and remediated, Doubt said the $4.27 million liability to the financial statements will disappear.
According to the Let’s Talk Trash website, qathet Regional District is receiving $6,000,000 in federal funding to help construct a state-of-the-art resource-recovery centre.
The new facility will divert numerous waste products from the solid waste stream and help the regional district move closer to achieving its goal of zero waste.
The project will greatly contribute to the region’s sustainability by upcycling, recycling and repurposing expended materials as well as reducing greenhouse gases created through the current transportation of waste abroad, according to the website.
