A plan for the Town of Canmore to truck its poo to the Town of Banff’s wastewater treatment plant is causing a bit of a stink.
The municipalities of Banff and Canmore have been working to truck Canmore’s treated sewage sludge – known as biosolids – to the N-Viro facility at Banff’s wastewater treatment plant, where it would be turned into fertilizer or soil amendment for sale.
But Parks Canada officials say they have some concerns about increased traffic to the plant along the golf course access road, which lies within a critical wildlife corridor for carnivores like cougars and wolves, and important elk wintering habitat.
“It is an area we restrict access to in winter because it is an important wildlife corridor and winter habitat, so we want to be careful in terms of how much traffic goes on that road,” said Banff National Park Superintendent Dave McDonough at a recent public planning forum.
“It is important to us that we don’t increase the truck traffic, and they have some proposals in the works that could mitigate that.”
Other concerns brought to the Outlook’s attention in recent weeks include the optics of large trucks carrying biosolids driving by Bow Falls, where throngs of tourists gather, as well as the visual and smell of trucks in summer when there’s golfing at the Fairmont Banff Springs.
At the N-Viro processing facility at Banff’s wastewater treatment plant, cement dust from the Bow Valley’s Lafarge and Graymont plants is added to dewatered biosolids, then mixed with Banff’s residential and commercial organic food waste, heated and dried.
The end product is known as Banff N-Rich, which has received approval for use as a fertilizer or soil amendment. A distributor agreement has been signed with Strathmore’s Eagle Lake Turf Farm – the only customer so far.
Paul Godfrey, the Town of Banff’s operations manager, said the work being done at the N-Viro facility in Banff is a good news environmental story.
“The material is too valuable to waste. We’re taking previously landfilled materials, blending them together and creating a beneficial product with a sustainable market, and we have the capacity to take on more,” he said.
“Everyone recognizes the ecosystem doesn’t end at the national park east gates. We share airsheds, transportation corridor, wildlife corridors, watersheds, and this is providing a regional solution to waste management.”
Godfrey said he believes Parks Canada’s concerns can be dealt with, noting Canmore’s trucks could travel the access road during late night and early morning hours.
In addition, he said, Banff could reduce the number of its trucks carrying Banff’s source separated organics (SSO) to the plant, by building a special holding facility at the transfer station in the industrial compound.
Godfrey said he anticipates the Town of Canmore would be sending 3,000 metric tonnes per year.
“With my experience with Canmore, I anticipate between three and four loads a week, if that much,” he said.
The golf course road was closed to winter vehicle traffic in 1997 as a result of a recommendation from the two-year, $2 million Banff-Bow Valley Study to reduce human interference with elk and carnivores like cougars and wolves.
Parks Canada does allow limited access along the road in winter, for such things as golf course maintenance, access to the Town of Banff’s wastewater treatment facility, and Parks Canada’s own activities.
Banff’s management plan indicates this is a very narrow corridor and increased use in the corridor will reduce connectivity and habitat quality for both wolves and cougar. The area is also wintering habitat for elk.
A key part of Parks Canada’s long-term management strategy has been to reduce human use in wildlife corridors to improve connectivity and to increase the ability of carnivores to predate upon elk and naturally regulate their population.
The Outlook was denied an interview request to follow up on McDonough’s comments at the planning forum and to get more information. Instead, RMO was given a written statement with quotes to be attributed to Sheila Luey, Parks Canada’s manager of land use and planning.
“No decision on the project has been made,” said Luey in the email. “We are waiting for more information on the Town’s proposal and public concerns before we are in a position to evaluate and make an informed decision.”
N-Viro Systems Canada manages and staffs the facility, but the Town of Banff owns the plant. The municipality gets a 50 per cent share of net revenue earned by N-Viro from the sale of Banff N-Rich – about $15,000 a year at present.
But Godfrey said the N-Viro facility is currently running at about 25 per cent capacity. The mixer can handle 10,000 tons per year, and Banff currently occupies 5,000 of that and Canmore is expected to generate 3,000.
He said the Town of Banff is also in discussions with Parks Canada about taking organics waste from Lake Louise.
“We are holding excess capacity for Lake Louise, and that’s part of the discussion with Parks Canada as well,” said Godfrey. “We met with Lake Louise last week (mid-December) and they toured the plant and they expressed interest.”
Canmore Mayor John Borrowman said the Town of Canmore is very keen to take its biosolids to Banff, saying it will be far less costly to do so from both an environmental and financial perspective for the Town of Canmore.
The municipality currently trucks its waste about 220 kilometres away to Penhold in central Alberta, at a cost of about $400,000 a year.
“We spend a lot of money shipping that stuff out. It’s expensive to ship our waste as far as we do,” said Borrowman. “There’s the cost of dollars of trucking waste out of the valley, but there’s also the other environmental costs.”
