By Cecilia Nasmith
With Deputy Warden Mandy Martin dissenting, Northumberland County's standing Public Works Committee has declined to join a multi-counties feasibility assessment of energy from waste.
The group behind the initiative would have made it a project among the Cities of Kawartha Lakes and Peterborough as well as the Counties of Hastings, Northumberland, Peterborough and Prince Edward, said the report recommending that the invitation be declined.
Manager of Environmental and Technical Services Adam McCue noted that the county will have to go through its own environmental assessment process to determine alternatives when its final landfill in Brighton reaches capacity to determine how to proceed – expanding that site, developing a new one, exporting waste or whatever.
All options should be on the table at that time, McCue said.
“Our feeling is, if we were to participate in the assessment specifically tied to developing an energy-from-waste facility, it would basically provide a perceived bias toward one of those options,” he commented – adding that energy-from-waste will certainly be among the alternatives considered at such time as the county looks at its own situation.
Martin's point was to take the initiative and get looking at the situation now.
“I think waiting for an EA means you are just waiting for the same old proposals to come forward that are in play now,” Martin said.
“I think we need to look at the options now, investigate them, be proactive.”
During an earlier presentation, Martin had asked a presenter for his opinion on energy-from-waste, noting that the technology had changed and it was no longer an option of towering, spewing smokestacks – though she acknowledged that not everyone is sold.
“We need to start looking at alternatives,” she declared.
“We need to start being innovative and creative, and take responsibility.”
“I believe it will be investigated, and I look forward to it,” Warden Bob Crate replied.
“What I don't want to see is entering into an agreement with an organization that presupposes what an environmental assessment will do,” committee chair Brian Ostrander added.
“The environmental assessment will include some form of waste-from-energy alternative, and it will be up to the council of the day to decide what the best process for waste is in the County of Northumberland.”
