Residents seek timeline for Cayuga landfill closure
Capacity increase could extend life of Brooks Road landfill by three or four years
Diane Manto has waited 18 years for the closure of Cayuga’s Brooks Road landfill, only to see the site’s lifespan extended through multiple capacity expansions.
A 50-year resident of the area, Manto said that while odour concerns have lessened over the past year, neighbours still encounter unpleasant smells.
“It’s mostly the wind that carries (the odour) and when there’s no wind, heavy fog and no movement, it just travels down the road and lays there,” Manto said during a March 7 public liaison committee meeting at the Cayuga Kinsmen Community Centre. “I know the difference between manure and what the dump smells like.”
Located in a rural area northeast of town, landfill operator Brooks Road Environmental is applying to increase the site’s capacity by approximately 219,400 cubic metres, through a combination of vertical and horizontal expansion, bringing the new maximum capacity to 375,000 cubic metres.
Ryan Loveday, project manager for consultant GHD environmental, told residents the landfill has about 38,000 cubic metres of remaining volume, enough to sustain it for three or four months. But Loveday noted the lifespan is also determined by the waste type and tonnage received. And if the landfill’s latest expansion effort is permitted, the site’s lifespan could be extended by another three to four years.
Loveday noted a final environmental screening report for the expansion is expected to be released later this month for a 60-day review. The step is required on the path toward environmental compliance approval from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.
Cayuga resident Richard Clark came to the meeting seeking a firm timeline for the dump’s closure.
“We want an end to this,” said Clark. “I don’t want to sit here with my house depressed in value for another 20 years, and smelling this crap every time I have my family over on a rainy day. We would like an answer …. When is the damn thing going to be closed and grassed over and people can get on with their lives?”
Tim Danyliw, project manager for Brooks Road Environmental, couldn’t provide an estimate for when the landfill might close, but said the decision is based on business and the provincial waste market.
“To be honest with you, I’m not the one who makes the decisions on this. That’s done well above my pay grade. That would just be done as a business decision and, unfortunately, I can’t just sit right here and give you an answer of ‘x’ amount of years,” Danyliw said at the meeting.
In a presentation earlier in the meeting, Danyliw acknowledged the site received odour complaints in 2020, prior to a vertical expansion that also changed the waste stream the facility accepts. The site has moved away from construction and demolition waste and currently accepts nonhazardous contaminated soil, Danyliw explained.
The dump received one complaint in 2022, but none in 2023, Danyliw added.
Danyliw said the site sends treated effluent to a Haldimand treatment plant and raw leachate to a licensed facility. Danyliw acknowledged it’s possible residents may be experiencing unpleasant odours while tanker trucks are being loaded with leachate.
“We are hauling a lot of raw leachate and while filling tankers, there is a potential for short leachate smells,” said Danyliw.
The Brooks Road landfill is currently approved to receive up to 1,000 tonnes of waste per day and 250,000 tonnes per year.