After seven months of discussion and three public meetings, the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) has voted to convert the Pender Harbour landfill to a transfer station.
The infrastructure services committee voted in a 4-3 decision to convert the landfill at its Feb. 11 meeting after over an hour of philosophical discussion, largely relating to whether a phone or mail-out survey should be done first.
The SCRD has been reviewing options for the future of the landfill, which is reaching its provincially-allowed limit. The options were to convert the landfill to a transfer station and ship waste to Sechelt or to do one of two possible expansions to the landfill, either to the north or the west.
Pender Harbour director Eric Graham voted against the motion, stating he was not comfortable making a decision until a representative survey of Area A residents had been done. West Howe Sound director Lee Turnbull and Halfmoon Bay director Garry Nohr joined Graham in the dissent.
The choice to convert the landfill to a transfer station is consistent with recommendations from the solid waste plan monitoring advisory committee, the solid waste management plan update working group and SCRD staff, as well as the consulting firm hired to investigate all options.
SCRD manager of sustainable services Dion Whyte said the committee used the "triple bottom line" approach of examining economic, environmental and social impacts when making the decision.
"On the economic side and the environmental side, certainly there is a clear benefit in the transfer station. You start looking at the social side and that becomes a much different thing to quantify," he said.
According to SCRD reports, the transfer station option will be cheaper for taxpayers than an expansion. Converting to a transfer station will also result in a 50 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases as the SCRD is in the process of installing a greenhouse gas capture system at the Sechelt landfill.
Graham praised Turn-bull and Nohr for voting with him, saying he isn't against the transfer station on principle, but couldn't vote for it without the support of his constituents.
"Area A should have had a chance to speak and let me know what the majority thought. Whether they were in favour of a transfer station or whether they were in favour of the expansion, that was the main issue for me," Graham said.
"That was a very important issue and I'm very disappointed that the rest of the [committee] didn't support me on that. Both options are very important to Area A, and that's why, when it comes to the board meeting, I will speak opposed to it unless I have a chance to find out what the majority wants."
Graham introduced two motions to survey the residents before making a decision, though both motions failed to get enough support as other directors questioned the cost and challenge of a survey and whether a statistically-significant result was even possible.
The committee made the decision after expansion advocate and area resident Howard White made a delegation to the SCRD asking them to re-examine their numbers on finances and greenhouse gas emissions. But, he argued, no matter what the numbers showed, the directors should vote against the transfer station out of respect to Area A residents' wishes.
After the meeting, White said the SCRD plainly made the wrong decision.
"It's very disappointing and I think it's a real slap in the face to the 850 people who signed a petition saying they wanted a landfill to stay open in Pender Harbour," White said. "The vast majority of people there disagree with this decision by the board, and I expect that the board will live to regret having made this decision."
Phil Ragan, a proponent of the transfer option, said the decision to have one less landfill is an important step towards the SCRD becoming a zero-waste community.
"In the end, the only thing that's important is we are members of the Sunshine Coast Regional District. We pay taxes into it, whereby sustainability, diversion, recycling, the diminishing of waste to zero waste over time will diminish the requirements for landfills," Ragan said.
White has also argued for more aggressive steps to zero waste, to which the SCRD has committed in the future.
The SCRD board must now vote on whether to ratify the decision at its Thursday, Feb. 25 meeting before staff can begin plans for a transfer station.
