For the second time in a year, the Town of Canmore has changed where it ships the community’s biosolids for composting.
The sewage sludge was shipped to an Edmonton facility until December, when the Town was told the Cleanit Greenit location would no longer accept the material due to issues with odour.
Manager of public works Andreas Comeau told council at its committee of the whole meeting earlier this month that in addition to the odour, the metal content of the substance was also too high for the Cleanit facility.
However, he said, before the municipality’s contractor, Epcor, began shipping the biosolids north it provided lab results on its content.
“They were, in our opinion, very much aware of what the odour was,” he said. “We made it very clear what our material was.”
Epcor and the town were notified of the change on Dec. 3, 2010 with Cleanit Greenit planning to refuse shipments as of Jan. 15, 2011.
Since then, Comeau said the Town has contracted a facility near Red Deer to take its biosolids within the proposed 2011 budget amount of $428,500.
The new location is the Strickland farm outside Penhold, which used to accept composted material from the Bowden Correctional Facility, where Canmore’s biosolids were shipped until last year.
“When Bowden shut their doors, their customers were looking for other options,” Comeau said, adding the farm decided to build its own composting facility.
Councillor Gordie Miskow expressed concern there is no backup plan for the backup plan.
“It seems like our options are getting smaller and smaller every year,” Miskow said. “I am glad we found a solution, but I am very concerned in the long-term about this problem.”
Deputy chief administrative officer Lisa de Soto said administration is also concerned about the issue and is working to establish long-term contracts.
“We have been finding interim solutions while we continue to look for a long-term solution,” de Soto said.
Canmore has traditionally shipped 3,000 tonnes of biosolids per year out of the community to be composted.
In the fall of 2009, Public Safety, the department responsible for the composting and agriculture program at Bowden, announced it was getting out of the business of running farms as they were running a deficit and not achieving their goals.
