Old dump will become a nice park one day
Westbank’s old dump will one day be made into a park and hiking area.
But a recycling and transfer station, which sees trash collected on-site for transport to the Glenmore dump, will continue operating indefinitely.
Trash was collected and buried at the Westside landfill from the late 1960s until 2010. It was shut down before reaching capacity in part because of increasing urbanization near the dump.
The Ministry of Environment approved the landfill’s final closure plan last fall.
Among other things, the plan specifies how the site will be graded, how monitoring will be undertaken for both gas emissions and groundwater quality.
“The proposed end use identified in the Closure Plan is a natural open space, with grassland vegetation similar to that which would exist in this area naturally, to serve as a community or regional park, possibly with a network of gravel walking trails,” reads part of the closure plan.
The closure plan was highlighted in a year-end report of activities undertaken by the Central Okanagan Regional District, presented to directors at their meeting this past Monday.
A contract for implementation of the closure plan is expected to be awarded before the end of March, regional district spokesman Bruce Smith said Tuesday in an email.