Jeff Nagel, BC Local News, August 27, 2010
Three Metro Vancouver mayors will go to Victoria Wednesday to present their controversial waste plan opening the door to increased garbage incineration.
Metro Vancouver's existing waste-to-energy plant near the Fraser River in south Burnaby. |
Board chair Lois Jackson, waste management committee chair Greg Moore and environment and energy committee chair Joe Trasolini will meet with environment minister Barry Penner Sept. 1 to brief him on the strategy to recover energy from 500,000 tonnes of waste per year that cannot be otherwise reduced or recycled.
The solid waste management plan, if approved, would allow Metro to build another garbage-fired plant either within the region or send garbage to one outside the Lower Mainland, likely on Vancouver Island.
Metro would keep hauling waste to distant landfills if incineration or other waste-to-energy technologies prove impossible.
Two of the three mayors meeting Penner – Moore of Port Coquitlam and Trasolini of Port Moody – actually opposed more in-region incineration when the Metro board voted July 30 to adopt the draft plan, citing concerns of Fraser Valley residents.
But Trasolini said he accepts the majority decision.
"We have a responsibility to move on to the next step," he said.
Penner, who is MLA for Chilliwack-Hope, will be free to approve the plan, direct Metro to make further changes or amend it himself.
It's not clear how long the province could spend reviewing the document.
"Our hope is this will be dealt with in a very efficient and expedient manner," Trasolini said. "We have a timeline to meet with the Cache Creek site nearing capacity.
"It takes a number of years to be able to go in the direction the plan is pointing, to waste-to-energy."
An environment ministry spokesperson said staff will review the plan to ensure it meets all appropriate standards, particularly around air quality and the critical requirement to reduce the amount of waste produced.
If Penner accepts the plan, Metro would then establish an independent review panel that would help frame a request for proposals that would be open to any waste-to-energy technology.
The panel would be charged with reviewing the bids and making recommendations.
Debate over what Metro should do with its waste had been beset by accusations regional district staff are strongly biased in favour of mass-burn incineration, possibly to the exclusion of different technologies.
But Richmond Coun. Harold Steves questions whether the review panel will succeed in bringing an aura of independence to the execution of the plan.
"Who chooses the independent panel? That's the problem," Steves said.
"At the end of the day, it's going to be up to the politicians."
The plan also commits Metro to aggressive waste-reduction steps – including composting of all residential organics – to boost the recycling rate from 55 per cent now to a minimum 70 per cent by 2015 and 80 per cent by 2020.
The existing waste-to-energy plant in Burnaby burns about 280,000 tonnes of garbage per year. Under the plan, Metro would continue using both the Burnaby incinerator and the Vancouver Landfill in Delta.
