MESSAGE TO RESIDENTS

Changes are Happening to Otter Lake Landfill

You need to ask: How did we get from calling a “Dump” to a “Landfill”, then to a “Solid Waste Management Facility”, to now being called a “Campus” as proposed by HRM. You should know how the planned Changes from a Dump to Otter Lake Campus “Affects You”.

The Otter Lake Landfill has been operating well since 1998. The operation has always been intended to close in 2024, as under the Operating Agreement with the Province, community organizations and local citizens in the area. Now, HRM wants to “break” this Agreement:

· “Double the height” of the existing disposal cells by adding on another 50 Feet on top of what is there now, so that the facility can operate for another 50 years.

· Put all “garbage” into the disposal cells without pre-sorting and treating.

· “Take all green bin organics” to Otter lake Landfill for processing in windrows.

· Call Otter Lake Landfill a “Campus”, meaning, take all wastes there, then figure it out.

Sounds Great, but ask yourself, as a nearby resident, how does this affect me?

· For those of you who enjoy the Bluff Trail, Nine Mile River (which the Landfill sits next to), Rails to Trails and Wilderness area, the Disposal cells will be more visible, there will be more equipment noise, particularly hearing trucks back up. There will be more odours and blowing garbage because the cells will be above the tree line.

· For those of you who plan to golf at the new course being built at Otter lake Exit to Timberlea, there will be odours and equipment noise, particularly when trucks back up.

· The litter along HWY 103 will continue until operations cease at Otter Lake. If all garbage and green bin wastes go to Otter Lake, there will be more waste trucks littering.

· Possibility of equipment failure. Keep in mind the facility sits next to the Nine Mile River. What happens to Nine Mile River if “Equipment FAILS”. The “sewage treatment plant” in Halifax failed in 2009 despite all the safeguards in place.

Do we want to “Repeat Mistakes”? If anything said here concerns you: STAND UP, BE HEARD Write the Mayor and Councillors. These Changes are coming to Regional Council soon for their Approval. Support your local area Politicians who are against this HRM Proposal…Councillors Reg Rankin, Steve Adams and Matt Whitman, along with MLA Iain Rankin and MP Geoff Regan. They stand by local Community Groups and Organizations, who are all “against” these “Proposed changes” to OTTER LAKE LANDFILL.

This Message is brought to you by the Board of Five Bridges Wilderness Heritage Trust,

c/o Harry Ward, Co-Chair, Lewis Lake

Posted on wrweo.ca Feb 16, 2014