By Chad Klassen

Cache Creek could receive operational certificate for landfill extension ‘any day’

Nov 23, 2016 | 4:25 PM

CACHE CREEK, B.C. — It’s been operating since 1989, but the future of the Cache Creek landfill remains uncertain. 

The landfill is scheduled to shut down December 31 before the Thompson-Nicola Regional Districts takes over operation. 

At its peak, the Cache Creek landfill took in 500,000 tonnes of garbage, mainly from the Lower Mainland. It employed 120 people.

But with Lower Mainland municipalities no longer trucking their waste there, it’s put Cache Creek in a precarious situation. 

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“We’re seeing the impact of lower revenues over the last few years, and we’ve had to tighten our belts in the village of Cache Creek,” says mayor John Ranta. 

The village is waiting for an operational certificate from the province, which could come any day now, according to Ranta. 

But even then, the new extension to be built by Belkorp Environmental Services, adding about 60 hectares of property, wouldn’t be ready until the fall of 2017. 

In the meantime, the TNRD will be responsible for collections starting January 1. 

“So we’ll be receiving garbage from the TNRD residents in that area — Ashcroft, Cache Creek, and the surrounding communities, and we’ll be transporting that garbage to the nearest TNRD landfill, which is all the way in Heffley Creek,” says Director of Environmental Services Jamie Vieira.

While there will still be curbside pick-up in Cache Creek, residents who want to drop off garbage and recycling will have to pay to use the landfill. 

“Our operating costs of that facility we’re estimating at about $300,000 for the year,” says Vieira. “It really is dependent on when and if the new landfill extension opens.”

But the big question remains: where will the garbage come from to justify the extension? 

Municipalities like Whistler and Nanaimo — which ship their waste to Washington State — are interested. Both are starting to pay more given the weak dollar. 

“Now that the Canadian dollar is so much lower than the American dollar, those contracts are written in American dollars, and so the regional districts that are utilizing American disposal capacity are seeing greater costs now and are starting to knock on our door saying ‘when’s that new landfill going to open? When can we come to Cache Creek,’” says Ranta.

Ranta is putting a lot of hope into the landfill reopening, an essential piece of the community.

“If there’s no landfill in the Village of Cache Creek, it will be like any other community, whether it be Merritt having lost the mill there or any other single-industry town basically where you lose the industry. There is undoubtedly hardship. There are people that leave the community, families that move away.”