Bye, bye, dumpcano: Iqaluit moves on its $35M waste plan

Iqaluit’s landfill site, which faces downtown Iqaluit on the other side of Koojesse Inlet, could be replaced by the fall of 2020, if the city’s waste management plan goes according to schedule. (FILE PHOTO)

Iqaluit residents can take a look at how their municipal government plans to close, clean up and replace its notorious eyesore of a landfill site off the road to the causeway, at a consultation to be held at the Qajuqturvik Food Centre in building 655 next week, on Thursday, Nov. 15.

It’s part of a new waste management plan the city first announced this past July, after the federal government confirmed it will put $26.6 million into the project, amounting to 75 per cent of its $35-million cost.

The remaining 25 per cent comes from the city, through the block funding it receives from the Government of Nunavut.

That money will pay for a new landfill about 8.5 kilometres northwest of Iqaluit, a road to a gravel source, the closure and cleanup of the old landfill and a 20,000 square foot “waste transfer station.”

Residents can look at artistic renderings of the new facilities and hear a brief presentation about the project.

Mayor Madeleine Redfern, Deputy Mayor Romeyn Stevenson and Matthew Hamp, the city’s director of public works, will attend the consultation to answer questions.

The city will use the waste transfer station to recycle metal and tires, and to sort electronics, furniture and household items that could be offered back to residents for re-use.

“Tires will be shredded, baled and loaded into shipping containers destined for recycling plants further south. Scrap steel will also be compacted and loaded into shipping containers to be shipped to recycling plants further south,” the city said.

The city also says only waste that cannot be re-used or recycled will be sent to the landfill site.

That means a 44 per cent reduction in waste destined for disposal at the landfill.

Also, the system will be designed to ensure gases from waste products do not build up, reducing the risk of fires.

The cost of the various elements breaks down like this:

• Waste transfer station: $19 million

• New landfill: $10.29 million

• Road to gravel source: $3.17 million

• Decommission old landfill: $2.5 million

The city’s proposed target dates are the following:

• Start of construction on waste transfer station: summer 2019

• Start of construction of new landfill: summer 2019

• Startup of new landfill: fall 2020

• Startup of waste transfer station: fall 2020

The Nunavut Planning Commission and the Nunavut Impact Review Board must still look at the city’s plans, through an application the city was expected to make to regulators this month.

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