‘Absolute worst possible place’: Pilot Butte upset over proposed site of compost facility

In Regina, the launch of the new green bin composting program is only a few weeks away, with the bins currently sitting in storage, ready to be delivered next month and the program set to start pickup Sept. 4.

Though the composting facility says it will be ready to accept waste for program start, it has only just started initial construction, and now people in Pilot Butte are up in arms.

The facility is set to be built just outside the Pilot Butte town limits in the RM of Edenwold.

The location of the compost facility, expected to be built next to Pilot Butte, as shared by Pilot Butte’s town council.

“I think it’s the absolute worst possible place you could put a facility like that,” said Clinton Hood, who lives in Pilot Butte.

He’d only recently heard about the facility when the town posted about it on its Facebook page.

“I was quite upset when I found out about it due to the fact that these facilities, across Canada, have caused issues,” said Hood, pointing to a composting facility in Edmonton that was shut down in the last few years over odour issues.

Hood is worried about how close the facility will be to the town’s daycare and the water treatment plant, which is less than a kilometre away. He’s also worried about the smell from the waste.

“The town is perfectly downwind from the facility. The closest building is our water treatment plant, so any leak at all would cause issues with the town water,” said Hood.

Hood and others are worried about the increased truck traffic on Highway 46 as well, which he said frequently has crashes.

“That intersection is terrible already. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come near it and there’s an accident there,” said Hood.

Others, during a public meeting Wednesday evening, also brought up concerns about rodents and wildlife being attracted by the facility and then moving into town.

The Town of Pilot Butte has put out official messaging saying it’s “adamantly opposed” to the location. It’s planning what it has called a public hearing on Monday evening to discuss the situation.

EverGen

Mateo Ocejo is an engineer on the project for EverGen and also the director of organics and project manager for the construction of the new facility. He was on hand at the RM’s public meeting Wednesday to answer questions.

Ocejo explained how this facility will work. When the compost is delivered, it will be organized into piles and then covered with large Gore-Tex tarps that trap vapour and steam. They’ll stay like that for two to three months while the waste decomposes and air is blown through the piles from below.

He said when the piles are uncovered, it just looks like soil.

According to Ocejo, other composting facilities use anaerobic decomposition, without oxygen, which is why they smell. But this facility will keep the piles aerobic, with oxygen from the air blown through. He said when that is combined with the Gore-Tex covers, there’s almost no smell.

“There is the potential; there always is some unplanned event that could cause odour. It’s not something that happens very often, but I’m not going to tell you it’s impossible. All I can say is that if anything were to happen, we would address it and resolve it,” Ocejo said during the Wednesday meeting.

But Ocejo also said he has built and run several other similar facilities in the country and – apart from a situation involving pig carcasses – his facilities don’t have odour.

“At our other facilities, you can’t smell anything at the property line, forget about more than a kilometre away,” he said.

The possibility of liquid leaching from the compost into the soil and then into the groundwater is a concern that was brought up by a few people. Ocejo said the site will be built with extra drainage throughout so nothing should get to the soil.

“We’ve got a design that is going to have entire facility operating on a giant 60,000-square-foot paved pad. All of the contact water, rainwater (and) leachate will get collected into a lined pond and then be reused by our process,” he explained.

The town is also worried about the potential of rodents and other pests being attracted to the site. Ocejo said they have brought in owl boxes and adopted cats from the SPCA at other sites to deal with any pests.

The facility will be situated near a busy intersection crossing Highway 46, and some are worried about the increased truck traffic — between 30 and 60 more vehicles a day.

At Wednesday’s meeting, a representative from the RM said it sounds like a lot all at once, but when stretched over an eight- to 10-hour work day, that’s at most seven or eight more vehicles in an hour and at least three more an hour.

Later, Ocejo said he often comes up against opposition when building a new facility.

“I understand where people have their concerns, and they’re valid concerns,” he said.

But he also said what tends to happen is people are opposed at first and after about a year, they’re fine with it.

According to Ocejo, despite the opposition to the project within Pilot Butte, that is the site for the facility.

The land is zoned industrial so it doesn’t need that kind of approval from the RM. It has received permits for initial work and Ocejo said there are plans that need to be submitted to the Ministry of Environment before more construction can be done, but he characterized it as getting details figured out on the facility.

The ministry said it hasn’t received the final construction application, and a construction permit won’t be issued until it gets the application and that’s reviewed.

EverGen didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The composting program

The City of Regina still expects its composting program to start Sept. 4, whether that particular facility can accept the waste or not. Janet Aird, the city’s acting director of water, waste and environment, said it’s a part of EverGen’s contract.

“They have to have contingency plans to mitigate if they’re not available … Whether that’s a transfer station or other options, they are required to have that as well,” she explained.

As for where the facility will be, the city didn’t provide a location which Ocejo said is usually easier, and the only requirement was that it be within 15 kilometres of the centre of Regina.

Meanwhile, people in Pilot Butte don’t seem to be taking solace from the answers from Ocejo on Wednesday. Many are still frustrated over the plan. Some, like Hood, say they’ll consider moving away from the town if the facility goes ahead.