Is Iqaluit’s dump a toxic threat?

IQALUIT — For years, Iqaluit residents have watched ugly plumes of dark smoke belching out of the garbage dump on the other side of Koojesse Inlet, worried about what they’re breathing and what it could it do to their health.

That unease is justified. According to submissions made at last week’s Nunavut Water Board hearing in Iqaluit, the smoke produced by garbage burns at Iqaluit’s dump could indeed contain a potent cocktail of toxic chemicals.

It’s caused by the slow and incomplete burning of wastes, such as metal and plastic, materials that probably shouldn’t be burned at all — especially at low temperatures. These fires spew particles up into the air, spreading them wherever the wind blows, on people and over the land.

The smoke can make it difficult for children, the elderly, the handicapped and anyone with respiratory problems to breathe, but even more troubling, this smoke also releases substances that, over the long term, could lead to cancer or cause genetic damage.

On June 21, Iqaluit’s fire department struggled for hours to get that nasty garbage fire under control.

“It took us a long time to get it under control, because it had been burning for a very long time,” said Iqaluit’s fire chief, Neville Wheaton.

The fire had apparently smouldered in one area of the dump where household garbage is stored. It then leapt over to the section that holds metal and construction materials, treated wood, plastic pipe, and insulation.

This wasn’t the first time that the fire department was called to snuff out a fire at Iqaluit’s dump. Last year, the firefighters extinguished more than 10 open burns. Each visit by the fire department costs the Town thousands of dollars.

Iqaluit’s municipal authorities nevertheless maintain that open burning is the only way to manage Iqaluit’s trash.

Iqaluit fails to produce plan

The dump, first opened in 1995 as a temporary site, was supposed to have a lifespan of only five years, and open burning would be a stop-gap measure.

But Iqaluit’s municipal officials never produced the solid waste management plan that they were supposed to produce back in 1997.

They did produce a study in 1998, but it was rejected by the Northwest Territories Water Board.

The Town of Iqaluit now prolongs the dump’s life by setting garbage fires.

“We believe that we can continue to operate the dump to around 2001, which will allow us to plan and build a facility that will be acceptable to the community,” said Denis Bedard, the town’s chief engineer.

Bedard appeared before the Nunavut Water Board last week to defend the Town’s application for a new license for water use, sewage treatment and solid waste disposal.

12,000 plastic bottles a day

Iqaluit’s population of about 4,700 produces a massive amount of garbage — around 13,000 cubic metres a year. This mass of trash includes regular household garbage.

It also contains many of the 12,000 plastic pop bottles churned out every day by the Coca-Cola bottling plant and tonnes of leftover construction materials.

While there are some recycling efforts, and hazardous waste is supposed to be separated out before dumping, anything that residents can stuff into green garbage bags is burned.

Many of those who attended the water board’s public hearings were outraged that Iqaluit continues to burn trash, especially when no one knows exactly what’s in it.

“Chemicals and plastics should not be among the stuff that’s burned at the dump, but should be separated first,” elder Celestine Erkidjuk told the board.

Iqaluit’s HTA criticized the practiced of open burning and called for action on the clean-up the old Apex dump.

“Inuit have always lived in harmony with the land and the animals,” read the submission of the Amarok Hunter and Trappers’ Association to the water board.

“Taking care of our waste in the most environmentally friendly way possible should be at the top of our municipality of Iqaluit and Government of Nunavut’s priorities, just as Inuit have practiced for hundreds of years.”

Pressure to end dump fires

Environment Canada and Nunavut’s Department of Sustainable Development also called for an end to garbage fires at the dump.

The Baffin Regional Board of Health questioned the safety of the site for its workers, as well as the smoke’s potential impact on the general public.

“We can only guess what those noxious, toxic gases would be,” said Nicole Ritchie of the Baffin health board.

The Town doesn’t burn trash when the temperature rises above 15 degrees C. from May 1 to September 30, when the wind blows from the northwest or when any activity is taking place at the nearby fuel tank farm.

But this strategy came under fire, too, at the Nunavut Water Board hearings.

Concerned resident Marcel Mason told the board that wants the town should ban burning between April 15 and October 1. He said that the burning trash poses a potential health danger to residents who camp on the nearby causeway or use Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park.

It’s also an eyesore. Mason also noted the dump is the first sight that meets — and often disgusts — visitors flying into the community.

“The open burn is one of the first sites seen by tourists and travelers as they land at the airport,” Mason said.

Four other abandoned sites

The future clean-up of four abandoned dump sites around Iqaluit also concerned those who spoke up at the water board.

“The site at Apex, one of the remaining four, literally spills into the tidal flats,” said the Department of Fisheries and Oceans submission. “The flats are littered with metal and other debris and the composition of this site is still unknown and it is a hazard to aquatic life.”

The Nunavut Water Board may either decide to impose conditions and penalties, or give the Town a short-term license as a way of forcing better management of Iqaluit’s solid waste problem.

“We don’t want to see another study done,” said Dionne Filiatrault, a technical advisor with the Nunavut Water Board. “What the regulatory agencies are looking for is along the lines of an action plan.”

The Nunavut government has set aside $200,000 for the plan and $4.2 million for Iqaluit’s future dump, which is supposed to be operational by the end of 2001.

Follwing the consultants’ recommendations on what kind of landfill system Iqaluit should have, the Town will need to select a site for the new dump.

The fire department would like to see this site five to ten minutes from the community, away from prevailing winds, and near a good water supply so that if there’s a fire at the dump, it can be extinguished quickly and will no longer poison the town.