RDOS closer to choosing site for composting facility
Sites in Marron Valley and Summerland have been short-listed to play host to a regional composting facility.
The proposed location at 2760 Marron Valley Rd., is owned by a locatee member of the Penticton Indian Band, while the other is at the District of Summerland landfill.
“The facility would compost all commercial, institutional and residential food waste and yard waste, and potentially wastewater treatment sludge,” according to a staff report that will be presented on Thursday to the board of the Regional District of OkanaganSimilkameen.
Public consultation is expected to begin soon to help RDOS staff select one site to recommend to the board for approval later this year, after which negotiations would begin on a lease agreement.
Transportation costs and the impact of odours on neighbours will loom large in the decision.
Odours from the Marron Valley site could affect up to 31 nearby homes and would require construction of a truck scale there, but its location within one kilometre of Highway 3A would save on transportation costs and therefore result in lower greenhouse gas emissions, explains the staff report.
Odour is not expected to be a concern at the Summerland site, which already has a scale, but trucking loads there would cost up to $93,000 more per year and produce upwards of 20 tonnes of greenhouse gases, the report continues.
The sites were selected with the help of a consultant from an original list of 18 privately and publicly owned properties scattered around the RDOS.
Creation of a composting operation was recommended in the 2010 Regional Organic Waste Strategy, which suggested such a multi-million-dollar facility could divert up to 17,000 tonnes of organic waste annually from area landfills. Costs would be offset by selling the composted material for agricultural use.
A separate RDOS staff report going to the board Thursday notes public consultation is also expected later this year on the possibility of using Penticton-style bins for curbside collection of garbage, recycling and organics throughout the region beginning as soon as 2018.