Thanks to rehabilitated Portland site, South Frontenac still has over 25 years of dump capacity

Jeff Green | Apr 20, 2022

The annual waste disposal site update to South Frontenac Council is set for this week. Jennifer Leeder, senior project manager with Cambium Inc., will be presenting the update, which is based on the work done by Cambium, up until the Autumn of 2021, on the 5 active and 4 inactive waste sites in the township.

In her Power Point presentation, she confirms that aside from some “persistent surface water issues”, which are localised to an area surrounding the waste mound, the Portland site is operating with the Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA) that was set out for it by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MoECC).

With a projected 44 years of estimated active life ahead of it, given the current annual fill rate, the Portland site, which is located off Road 38 south of Verona, is the lynchpin site, for the township as a whole, over the next quarter century.

It was at risk about 10 years ago, but efforts to remediate the site were successful; it has continued to operate within ministry guidelines ever since.

The Loughborough site, located near Perth Road, is the biggest question mark for the township. The groundwater containment is not compliant, at this time, and the township is pursuing property or groundwater rights on adjacent properties to bring the site into compliance. Cambium only estimates that the site will remain in operation for 4 years, the way it is operating at this time, but if a proposed phase 2 at that site is approved by the Ministry, the site can keep operating for an estimated 26 years.

The other 3 active sites (Bradshaw, Salem, and Green Bay) are all smaller sites that operate seasonally in Bedford District. They are operating in compliance with the ECA and have 10, 20, and 6 years of remaining site life, respectively.

The overall remaining estimated active life for the entire South Frontenac system is 27 years, assuming that the volume of waste will gradually increase at the Portland site as the other sites fill up over the next 20 years. If, however, Phase 2 is approved for the Loughborough site, that would increase the overall estimated active dumping life in the township to 32 years.

The four closed sites in South Frontenac that continue to be monitored for environmental impacts include: Fish Creek, Crow Lake, Massasauga, and Burridge. No problems were reported at those locations.

The Storrington District waste sites were all closed prior to municipal amalgamation in 1998, and the waste has been trucked out of the township ever since.