Drumheller, with its regional partners, will be boldly going into a new method of waste management. The decision was made by the Drumheller and District Solid Waste Management Association (DDSWMA) to join the Southern Alberta Energy from Waste Alliance (SAEWA).
The goal of SAEWA is to build a waste to energy facility in southern Alberta.
“There’s a strong movement in waste management that waste to energy plants, five, then, or thirty years down the road, are going to start overtaking landfills as the most common mechanism to deal with solid waste,” said Drumheller DDSWMA representative, Councillor Jay Garbutt. “This is the way that waste management is going to be dealt with in the future.”
Though the motion to join SAEWA passed, there was opposition. Both Drumheller representatives, Garbutt and CAO Ray Romanetz, voted against membership.
For Garbutt, there were too many unanswered questions to warrant DDSWMA joining SAEWA.
“Personally, I don’t join any organization that I don’t know how to get out of if I found it wasn’t meeting my needs and that I don’t have a good sense of what it would cost. Both are true for our organization’s decision to join SAEWA.”
Membership into SAEWA requires that members pay 40¢ per capita fee. Will that fee increase is unknown according to Garbutt.
Members of DDSWMA association pay a $4 per capita fee. Despite the SAWEA fee, residents of Drumheller will not see a fee increase on their utilities.
Another unanswered question is who, if anyone, profits from operation of the future waste to energy facility.
“My concern is that all the research and development that members of SAEWA will be funding, will ultimately only wind up profiting whoever owns the facility. These are generally facilities that are run for profit by businesses,” said Garbutt. “I don’t believe that municipalities should subsidize for profit industries.”
Lastly, how much waste would be required is unknown. Garbutt described the appetite of waste to energy converters as “voracious.”
“Red Deer chose not to pursue this, because their for-profit provider required them to meet a certain expectation for waste levels. If they fell below that, they had to pay a penalty in cash,” said Garbutt. “If there isn’t enough waste available in Southern Alberta...there could be cash penalties.”
Also, it is likely that Drumheller would have to truck all of our non recyclable waste to the facility, increasing costs.
However, there could be benefits for joining. Garbutt suggested that membership will allow DDSWMA association to have input on development of the project, such as where the facility will be located.
The more members that join SAEWA, it may become easier to demonstrate the level of interest to the province, thus getting more attention and, possibly, funding.
The decision to join SAEWA comes after DDSWMA has spent $8 million to turn the Drumheller landfill into a state of the art facility, so much so that it was awarded last year for the quality of its recycling facilities.
“Great things are happening here in Town and our staff and the DDSWMA is responsible for that,” said Garbutt.
Garbutt does not feel that, given the quality of the Drumheller landfill, that joining a waste to energy initiative is not needed at this time.’ “Drumheller has a state of the art landfill and we’re not concerned about any watershed issues. For the foreseeable future, the landfill has a long lifespan and opportunity to expand. We’re not concerned about alternative ways to deal with waste,” said Garbutt.
Completion of a waste to energy converter, wherever it may be, is still many years off, estimated to be at least five to seven years by Garbutt.
“In my opinion...we’re too early in the process to be committing money,” said Garbutt. “The DDSWMA doesn’t agree, they chose to go a different direction. It’s time to make sure we get the information we needed and continue to represent the best interests of the people of Drumheller the best we can.”
