Western Regional Waste Management Committee Meeting Minutes

Meeting Information: Date: Thursday, November 24, 2011 Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm Place: City Hall, Corner Brook, NL

Present were: Richard Farrell Town of Channel-Port aux Basques Geraldine Porter Local Service District in Bay St. George South Sheila Mercer Town of Deer Lake Cynthia Downey Town of Stephenville Crossing Eileen Hann Town of Port au Port East Jerry Martin Town of Hampden (Replacing Joan Parsons) Walter Nicolle Town of Rocky Harbour Donna Luther City of Corner Brook (Returned from Leave of Absence) Don Downer Chair, WRWMC Jason King Coordinator, WRWM Pauline Anderson Office Administrator, WRWMC Wayne Manuel Bae NewPlan (Via Telephone) Cory Grandy Department of Municipal Affairs (Via Telephone) Ashley Burke MMSB Business Development Officer (Via Telephone)

Missing with Apologies: Tony Blanchard Humber Economic Development Board (Irishtown) Gary Bishop Town of Pasadena Linda Chaisson City of Corner Brook Doug Mills NPRSB (NorPen) Barbara Barter Town of Rhea Hutchings WRWM Technical Committee Chair Boyd Wright Department of Municipal Affairs Call to Order The meeting was called to order by Chair Don Downer at 6:00pm with quorum achieved. Cory Grandy (Municipal Affairs) and Ashley Burke (MMSB) joined us via telephone. Agenda for this meeting includes: 1. Review and approval of October 27, 2011 WRWM Committee Minutes 2. Wayne Manuel Presentation - Status of the Wild Cove Endangered Species situation and the review of Wild Cove capacity to 2016 and future 3. Brief Review WRWM Developments & Sub-Region Updates (Don) 4. Recommendations from the Regional Service Board sub-committee & Technical Committee on the governance model structure 5. Discussion on the Western Regional Solid Waste Management Strategy – Progress Report #2 6. Communications/Web Site Postings 7. Meeting Schedule for Dec. & 2012 8. Other

1. Review and approval of October 27, 2011 WRWM Committee Minutes There were no comments on the October 27, 2011 meeting minutes; therefore, they were approved by consensus of the committee.

2. Status of the Wild Cove Endangered Species situation and the review of Wild Cove capacity to 2016 and future - C&D Waste – to be transported to Wild Cove for permanent disposal - White Goods/Metals – kept at transfer station and is collected by outside contractor. - Bulk – shredded and transported to the Regional Waste Management Facility. - Ewaste – this can be incorporated into the transfer stations at a future date when an ewaste program is put into effect. Bae Newplan presented preliminary findings on locations of the transfer stations and Wayne Manuel presented the layout for each station identified. i. White Bay South – Pollards Point existing site located in a quarry. ii. Bay St. George – St. Georges existing landfill site (2 bay transfer station) iii. Long Range – Just north of Cow Head (may change). This site contains a rock quarry which can possibly be used for C&D disposal. This transfer station includes the area from Bellburns south to Northern Bonne Bay. The south side of Bonne Bay is not included in this transfer station. This area will be looked at more closely by Bae NewPlan as the centroid moves closer to the Rocky Harbour/Norris Point area in the summer months. Bae NewPlan will consult the Rocky Harbour and Norris Point town offices for municipal plans to see if there is suitable areas nearby that could be used for a transfer station. iv. Southwest Coast – Port aux Basques existing landfill site

2 v. Burgeo/Ramea/Grey River – unsure if a full transfer station is required; a temporary storage area is required; or, if direct haul to Bay St. George is necessary. vi. Wild Cove – research determines that despite the discovery of endangered plants in the area, Wild Cove could possibly be used as a transfer station for residents from the south side of Bonne Bay to Corner Brook. See further explanation of this continued in these minutes. All transfer station sites, once officially identified, will have to go through environmental registration with the government. Bae NewPlan has now reviewed surveys conducted on the Wild Cove site from the 1960s up to, and including, 2011 and have determined the following: - 170,000 cubic metres of space available if we use a 3:1 slope, 10 metre height all the way to the treeline. This would give us enough space to continue to use Wild Cove as it is currently being used until 2016. - 20,000 cubic metres/year for C&D use (if we are conservative) which gives us six years of use. - Gain seven years for every metre the waste is piled beyond the 10 metre height mark. To go beyond 10 metres it is advised to conduct stability studies. Wayne Manuel (Bae NewPlan) met with Corner Brook representatives earlier today and was asked by them to compose a proposal for Corner Brook to submit to government to get approval and funding for these stability studies to take place within the next few months. Pending the results of these tests, it seems very likely that Wild Cove can be used as a transfer station for the Corner Brook – South Bonne Bay area over the next 30+ years without having to touch the area containing the rare plant species.

3. Brief Review WRWM Developments & Sub-Region Updates (Don) Due to time constraints at this meeting, it was determined that this information would be included in the next newsletter to be sent out in the next few weeks.

4. Recommendations from the Regional Service Board sub-committee & Technical Committee on the governance model structure At the October 27th WRWM Committee meeting, it was requested of Wayne Manuel (Bae NewPlan) to draft 2-3 options for a service board structure based on his research into the transfer station locations in he was working on at that time. Wayne prepared three scenarios and met with the sub-committee on November 16th to discuss these scenarios and a final recommended option was decided upon and presented to the WRWM Committee. Board members will be elected officials whereas there are currently no specifications in the Regional Service Board Act stating the Chair must be an elected official. Recent Municipal Newfoundland and meetings presented a resolution that the chair of a Regional Service Board should be an elected official as well, but this is not in the legislation at this point. The WRWM Committee was concerned with this resolution in that with the duties already involved with an elected official, they may not have the time necessary to put into the position of a Regional Service Board Chair. There was discussion about the possible roles of Executive Director or a Chief Administration Officer as well in a Regional Service Board. In current legislation, government has the obligation to appoint the chair of a Regional Service Board.

3 The 11 member Regional Service Board Structure accepted by the committee is as follows:

Drawing No PR1-03-CB-XX-001, Rev A

A motion was made by Cynthia Downey, seconded by Walter Nicholle with all of the committee in attendance in favour of the motion: “The Western Regional Waste Management Committee recommends the model put forward by the governance sub-committee () of eleven (11) members plus a chairperson. We recommend the nomination process of each municipality and Local Service District receiving one vote.” Committee members have until December 8th to consult with their councils and sub- regional committees regarding this governance model structure and submit feedback. If no feedback is received by December 8th, this motion will be submitted to Municipal Affairs for Cabinet approval.

5. Discussion on the Western Newfoundland Regional Solid Waste Management Strategy – Progress Report #2 Even with the final edits from the feedback provided on Progress report #1, it is still an outdated report and missing a lot of the recent research and discoveries. It was recommended by Bae NewPlan that they add the updated information to this report to have ready for the Committee in Mid-December. The WRWM Committee agreed to this as it will get the most up-to-date information out to the public as soon as possible.

4 6. Communications/Web Site Postings Newsletter: The fourth newsletter will be composed and released by mid-December. Website: Adopted minutes to meetings that have occurred since Don Downer was appointed Chair have been loaded onto the website. Sub-regions are encouraged to send us their own adopted meeting minutes, meeting schedule, and any other pertinent information for the public.

7. Meeting Schedule for Dec. & 2012 The committee agreed to continue with the schedule of having WRWM Committee meetings the fourth Thursday of each month starting on January 26, 2012.

Central Costing Meeting: A meeting was held in Central with Don Downer in attendance to discuss the cost figures. There is more fine-tuning needed in these numbers which Bae NewPlan is in the process of doing. The transportation subsidy was discussed and it was determined that a joint presentation by Central and Western to a government delegation would greatly help government on making a final decision. In going with one facility instead of two facilities there is undoubtedly a capital savings cost for the government but any operation savings for Central and Western would balance out the transportation costs. Central and Western need to determine what exactly they need from government in order for both Western and Central to benefit from operating one facility while minimizing the risks to them. One idea may be the request for a percentage of the government’s capital savings being placed in a ‘trust fund’ for use by Western/Central that would lower operational costs and pay for the transportation of waste. A long term agreement of funds (ie. annual transportation subsidy) is not something that can be guaranteed beyond the current government administration so another alternative (ie trust fund) may be needed. The WRWM Committee agreed that this joint presentation should go ahead immediately. Don will contact Central Chair Allan Scott and organize meetings to begin discussions on the joint presentation. It was recommended to have this presentation ready for mid-January 2012. The WRWM committee decided to have an ‘emergency meeting’ on January 12, 2012 to review and finalize this presentation only. It is expected that the presentation to government would take place in the week following. At the cost meeting, it was also discussed as to how the committee/board structures would change once Western, NorPen, Green Bay and Coast of Bays all join to use the one facility. It was recommended that each area would keep their own committee/board but there would also be a higher level executive board with 1-2 members from each area represented on this board.

Recommendations & Results from Technical Committee: 1. With respect to the Wild Cove Waste site, Wayne Manuel is meeting with Corner Brook City representatives this afternoon. During that meeting, the TC recommended he discuss with them Corner Brook’s involvement in surcharging the Wild Cove site. Tests need to be conducted to see if the height of the landfill can go above 10 metres to extend the life of the site for C&D usage beyond 2016. 2. Western and Central Board Representatives/Chair need to meet and discuss what both areas require from Government in order to proceed with the Waste Management process. They need to discuss whether they require a percentage of the government capital savings going into a ‘trust fund’ or another means to get us moving forward.

5 3. Regional Service Board Structure - The TC agreed that the scenario presented by Wayne Manuel is the most effective structure in representing the Western Region. It was also recommended the one community = 1 vote method of nominating the representative from each sub-region be used as well. The Codroy Valley portion of SWC sub-region may need some additional work. 4. Progress Report #1 – Wayne Manuel advised that this report is fairly outdated regardless of the edits that have taken place. He recommended Bae NewPlan update this report with all the current information and then send it to WRWM in Mid-December for placement onto the website. 5. Peter Fenwick – Inform Peter that his letter/email has been brought to the Technical and WRWM committees and will be considered when the plan is developed. Reinforce that the 7 zones have already been identified and that the Port au Port Peninsula was not determined to be one of these zones. If it is deemed necessary at a later date, it will be considered; however, the possibility of Port au Port peninsula getting its own transfer station is remote. This does not prevent the Port au Port Peninsula from coordinating a drop off area amongst their communities if they are willing to absorb the cost involved with getting the waste to the St. Georges site. 6. Meeting Schedule – The Technical Committee members see no problem with the 4th Thursday pattern the WRWM Committee adopted in 2011 to continue into 2012. There are also no foreseen problems with having the Technical Committee meetings on the morning of the WRWM Committee meeting dates. Mondays and Fridays, along with the third Thursday in each month, do not work for Wayne Manuel. There is also no immediate need for a Technical Committee meeting in December 2011.

Curbside Collection: A regional service board can offer regional curbside collection but they cannot force everyone to participate. In the Southwest Coast, Port aux Basques has accepted the role of curbside collector for that sub-region. The same can be done in other sub-regions if an agreement can be struck amongst the users.

Peter Fenwick Letter: On November 13, 2011, Peter Fenwick submitted a letter to WRWM Chair Don Downer requesting that the Western Waste Management Authority establish a transfer site on the Port au Port Peninsula to serve the residents of the area. The committe advised Don to respond to Peter’s letter stating that his request was brought to the Technical and WRWM committees; however, the transfer station zones have already been identified and St. Georges was determined to be the site in the Bay St. George zone. The distance from the Port au Port Peninsula to the St. Georges site does not warrant a smaller transfer station. Placing additional storage areas in the Port au Port peninsula would allow for other areas in similar situations to request similar services and would therefore increase operating expenses. Providing additional storage areas outside of transfer stations would also spread the waste out over a larger area rather than reducing the waste storage as Waste Management is designed to do. Western Regional Waste Management is committed to providing the same level of service to everyone in the region. Western Regional Waste Management will not prevent the Port au Port Peninsula, or any other area/community, from coordinating a drop off area amongst their communities if they are willing to absorb the cost involved with getting the waste to the St. Georges site.

No further items were brought up for discussion. Meeting was adjourned at 9:05pm.

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