The operator of a landfill located in Mauricie is asking the Legault government to grant him authorization to bury 250,000 tonnes of waste there per year, for the next 20 years. This expansion project, designed to receive residual materials from different regions of Quebec, requires encroaching on wetlands and wooded areas.
The Champlain “engineered landfill” (LET), which belongs to the Régie de gestion des Matériaux Residues de la Mauricie (Énercycle) and which is managed by Matrec, can currently receive up to 150,000 tonnes of waste each year. . Before July 2019, the government authorization set the maximum at 100,000 tonnes.
The site is now reaching full capacity. To continue to “offer an essential service for the management of final residues of quality and at a reasonable cost”, Matrec, a subsidiary of the Ontario company GFL Environmental, must extend the area of the LET. According to what is specified in the project notice filed with the Quebec Ministry of the Environment, the expansion of the landfill site “also offers support for the growth of GFL”, the acronym for “Green for Life”.
To meet “growing needs”, the project promoters are also requesting authorization to bury up to 250,000 tonnes of waste each year, for the next 20 years. This is a 66% increase over the current annual capacity. The site in question, which is located south of Highway 40, east of Trois-Rivières, could thus receive more than five million tonnes of waste over the next two decades. More than 13,000 trucks will be needed each year for transport to the site.
Mauricie municipalities are in the process of implementing a composting system, so regional needs should decrease
The impact study produced by the promoters also indicates that the “main market” of the LET will cover a vast territory of Quebec. Waste from the residential, industrial, commercial and institutional sectors buried on the site will notably be transported from Montreal and Estrie, in addition to that from Mauricie. As for construction, renovation and demolition (CRD) “residues”, they may come from eight different regions.
Matrec spokesperson Bernard More also points out that the increase in the annual landfill limit will be used mainly for the treatment of “fine residues” of CRD and residues from sorting centers for recyclable materials that are not ” recoverable”. “There is a significant need for CRD waste in Quebec,” he says. According to the most recent data from Recyc-Québec, 1.3 million tonnes were buried in 2019.
Natural environments
This “expansion project” is currently undergoing a government environmental assessment process. The promoters submitted their impact study in the spring of 2022 and they have since had several exchanges of questions and answers with experts from various ministries.
Once the impact study has been “deemed admissible”, the project will be subject to a review by the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE), confirms the office of Quebec’s Minister of the Environment, Benoit Cart. “A rigorous environmental analysis will then be carried out in collaboration with the other departments and agencies involved in the project. At the end of this analysis, the minister will make a recommendation to the government.
According to what emerges from the hundreds of pages of the impact study, the expansion of the dump will require encroaching on wetlands and wooded areas that are located on land belonging to Enercycle. According to the most recent data available, it is a question of sacrificing a maximum of 255,420 square meters of natural terrestrial environments, mainly red maple stands. Added to this are 25,000 square meters of wetlands. The proponent undertakes to pay financial “compensation” for the lost wetlands.
The impact study also indicates that 52 species of birds have been observed in this sector, some nesting there, including the eastern wood-pewee, a species on the list of endangered species in Canada.
The operation of a landfill also generates leachate, or wastewater that is the result of water flowing through the waste. This is collected and treated in a plant installed on the site, before being discharged into a ditch that empties into the Champlain River. This river is habitat for eastern sand darter, a species considered “threatened” under the Species at Risk Act. The watercourse also flows into the St. Lawrence River.
Biogas
Most of the biogas produced by the site will be burned using a flare, according to the operator’s plans. The Ministry of the Environment therefore suggested that it study the possibility of finding outlets for this gas, evaluating the potential at 10 million cubic meters. “The Champlain LET will be the subject of a feasibility and profitability study in order to explore possible avenues in terms of energy recovery from biogas”, replies the promoter, while specifying that this will not be carried out. “before the issuance of government authorizations”.
Énercycle’s general manager, Stéphane Comtois, believes that the expansion project is well received in the region. He adds that the member municipalities of the Mauricie Residual Materials Management Board hope to reduce the quantity of materials to be buried by implementing the residential collection of organic materials, the “brown bin”, in the coming months.
According to the Director General of the Quebec Common Front for Ecological Waste Management, Karel Ménard, the project being evaluated first meets “the needs of the Matrec company, or GFL, of which it is a subsidiary”. On reading the documents presented by the promoters, he deplores the desire to use the Champlain site to bury materials from different regions.
“It is not justified in relation to environmental issues and it is not justified in relation to needs. The municipalities of the Mauricie are in the process of implementing a composting system, so regional needs should decrease,” adds Mr. Ménard. The latter pleads for “provincial planning” for the management of residual materials, instead of authorizing the expansion of “piecemeal” sites. “Currently, it’s the ‘open bar’ for the disposal of garbage cans,” he denounces.