Dump to charge $5 fee for yard waste next year

A minimum $5 fee for yard waste will be imposed at the Kelowna dump next year.

Councillors unanimously approved the new fee Monday saying the charge was necessary as part of an increase in a variety of user fees at the landfill.

The higher fees are necessary so the landfill doesn't "go broke in the next 10 years," senior staffer Kevin Van Vliet told council.

The cost for dumping garbage loads of up to 250 kilograms will rise from $10 to $11.

As well, the tipping fee per tonne of garbage will rise form $65 to $100 by 2020, and the per-household garbage levy applied to property taxes will climb from $162 annually to $174.

Currently, some of the charges at Kelowna's landfill are below those charged at landfills in other Okanagan communities, council heard.

A new charge at the Kelowna dump will apply to trash taken off planes arriving at Kelowna airport from foreign countries. Federal health rules require such loads to be immediately buried at the dump.

"That's so we're not importing flies and other bugs from other countries that may have happened to be in somebody's apple core when they got on a plane," Van Vliet told council.

Council also approved a new, long-range dump management plan that will see the main trash mound rise higher than previously projected. That will extend the lifespan of the dump from 2065 to 2090.