Water board orders Iqaluit to limit dump-burning

VALERIE G. CONNELL

The Town of Iqaluit’s new water licence requires the Town to drastically restrict burning at Iqaluit’s over-flowing dump.

In a new licence handed out this week, the Nunavut Water Board has outlined limitations to burning at the dump that may mean changes to the way garbage is collected in Iqaluit, says Matthew Hough, Iqaluit’s director of engineering and public works.

The licence came into effect Jan. 1, 2001, and is good for three years. The Town had requested a five-year licence.

Under the conditions of the 19-page document, the Town of Iqaluit, as of June 1, is required to restrict burning at the dump to food wastes, paper products, paperboard packaging and untreated wood.

Hough said this means the Town may have to restructure the way it collects and disposes of garbage within the next six months.

“That basically is telling us to separate household waste,” Hough said.

Hough said the restrictions on burning may be difficult if not impossible to comply with.

They would require either going through the garbage piece by piece at the dumpsite — which Hough said would be quite dangerous — or having residents and businesses separate their garbage before pickup.

The restriction would even prohibit burning the plastic bags in which most people put their garbage for collection, he said.

The licence also limits burning to times when the temperature is below 15 C, and when the smoke plume isn’t blowing into town or endangering the fuel-tank farm.

Hough said there’s a “very formal” process to appeal the board’s decisions if there are conditions the Town is unable to comply with. The Town is currently having its lawyer review the licence.

By this fall the Town is expecting to have an incinerator up and running, bringing an end to open burning. The water board licence requires the Town to create a contingency plan in case the incinerator isn’t in place as soon as planned.

In addition to the burn limitations, the licence calls for the Town’s sewage treatment plant to be operational by Aug. 1.

An inspection report on the sewage lagoon is required by Nov. 1.

“Although it’s [a] very work-intensive [licence], it’s not necessarily anything we didn’t expect,” Hough said.

“We can work with this. It’s going to be a lot of work, but we can work with it.”