CRD'S LANDFILL EXPANSION PLAN MAY WORSEN CLIMATE EMERGENCY

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Vancouver Island’s Capital Regional District (CRD) declared a climate emergency, yet the CRD staff, and seemingly the CRD Board, are moving full steam ahead on approving a draft Solid Waste Management Plan which will significantly increase Green House Gas (GHG) emissions through the activities of:

  • The destruction of 73 acres of forest, home to the threatened Western Schreech-Owl and stands of old-growth Douglas Fir

  • Massively expanding the landfill to extend its life into 2100

  • Blasting, mining and removal of aggregate (heavy industrial truck traffic)

  • Moving the landfill entrance to Willis Point Road - increasing travel distances for the bulk of landfill traffic

  • Continuing to landfill waste rather than choosing existing zero-waste-landfill options that reduce rather than increase GHG emissions.

Landfills are one of the top five sources of GHG emissions.

Though most members of the CRD Board of Directors appear to take the issue of climate change seriously, they don't seem to be asking the right questions of their staff, namely Larisa Hutcheson, when they are presented with the Traffic Impact Analysis and the Draft Solid Waste Management Plan.

  1. How much GHG emission will result from each component of the Hartland Landfill Expansion?

  2. Where are these figures represented in the various plans, reports and their Appendices?

  3. Can they be summarized in one place, front and centre as part of the cost analysis - because GHG emissions are a cost and result in many more expenses.

  4. What alternatives to waste-to-landfill exist? Where?

  5. What are the GHG emissions resulting from these alternatives?

Piecing Together the Entire GHG picture:

The Alternative Access Analysis - Bunt & Associates (Appendix A) - states that there will be a 15% increase in GHG emissions associated with relocating the Hartland access for heavy trucks to Willis Point Road; however, a closer inspection of the report finds this misleading. While it may be true that rerouting truck traffic from Hartland Avenue to Willis Point Road will create an increase in GHG of 15% and the addition of all residential traffic will increase GHG emissions to 30%, what the report does not evaluate is the amount of GHG emissions that will result from the growing truck traffic throughout the region at the region's rate of population increase and resulting municipal waste creation.

The big picture is being overlooked with regard to the overall draft plan to expand the landfill, including deforestation, mining and the removal of aggregate (which will also cause an increase of GHG emissions and a loss of carbon sequestration).

Mount Work Coalition consulted an Engineer/Physicist who is well versed in renewable energy and emissions to help estimate the impact of the Solid Waste Management Plan on our climate emergency.

We have begun with an analysis of the projected GHG emissions from the total landfill traffic that the draft Solid Waste Management Plan will produce. Given estimates in population growth over the next 100 years, estimated GHG emissions (as cited by regulatory bodies) associated with tonnes of waste produced per person, and hauling associated with waste (input to Hartland) and aggregate (output from Hartland), the following can be estimated:

 
*see Sources for information on where data was drawn from

*see Sources for information on where data was drawn from

 

*Note: these estimates do not include the additional GHG emissions from mining activities, release of CO2 from deforestation and excavation, nor the long term GHG produced from decomposing waste.

*Note: This is obviously a quick estimate and a more nuanced analysis of GHG emissions resulting from the Solid Waste Management Plan scenario would be appropriate. However, it does provide an eye-opening perspective on the big picture with regards to the possibility of worsening an already urgent climate situation.

In summary

The landfill expansion plan currently proposed by CRD staff for Hartland will lead to an annual average of over 80,000 tonnes of GHG emissions per year over the next century just from the landfill traffic and extended distances. The GHG emissions will increase over that period rather than decrease if the CRD Board does not pause now to consider existing alternatives and emerging technologies which less destructive.

  1. Rushing into a plan that offers poor assumptions and one option that has been determined by several authorities to be one of the biggest causes of GHG emissions will lead to the CRD producing massive GHG emissions over 100 years.

  2. Reducing (or locally managing the waste each of us produces) offers a profound benefit - the region could significantly reduce waste to landfill with simple, less expensive and doable solutions and thereby extend the life of the landfill as is.

  3. Mining, excavation and landfilling make things significantly worse.

As it is now a regular occurrence for the Pacific Northwest to be blanketed by dense smoke caused by ever more intense and numerous forest fires we invite you to consider that it is of urgent importance you to tell the CRD that you expect better of them, that they need to take a more considered approach. At the least, the CRD could consider that the Traffic Impact Analysis and its supporting documents are flawed and incomplete (e.g. The Bunt & Associates report contains mathematical errors and misleading information) and that approving it may well propel the CRD and our region into a precarious future.

Climate Crisis, Hartland ExpansionDelaney ToshCRD, Greenhouse Gas Emissions