Terrebonne | The largest dump in Quebec wants to expand

The largest landfill in Quebec wants to extend its activities for 30 years and thus receive 44.5 million cubic meters of additional waste, enough to fill the Olympic Stadium in Montreal 24 times.

The expansion project for the Lachenaie engineered landfill (LET), in Terrebonne, was filed with the Environmental Assessment Registry of Quebec on March 7, confirming the intentions already expressed in the past by its owner, the Canadian subsidiary of the American multinational Waste Connections.

This landfill is the only one on the territory of the Metropolitan Community of Montreal (CMM), and its authorized capacity should be reached in 2027, now forecasts the company, which previously mentioned the year 2029.¹.

Waste Connections wants to “bury waste materials there for another 30 years, that is to say until 2057”, at the current rate of 1.5 million cubic meters per year, it writes in the document filed with the Register. .

In recent years, the company has acquired the land necessary for the expansion; it estimates that it needs a “minimum period of 48 months” to achieve it.

“A project from the 1990s”

Such an expansion would be contrary to what should be done, believes the director general of the Quebec Front for ecological waste management, Karel Ménard.

“I find it pathetic, it’s a project from the 1990s”, when the mega landfills appeared, he says.

These sites receive such a high volume of waste that they can “beat the competition” and offer prices that make landfilling much more attractive than any other solution, Ménard laments.

It is inconsistent that municipalities must plan waste management, but that their burial is entrusted to private companies who do “everything to have as many bins as possible”, he notes.

The government is “taken hostage” by an oligopoly of companies in the sector “who dictate the elimination agenda in Quebec”, accuses Karel Ménard.

“There are five sites in Quebec that manage more than 75% of garbage cans, and they belong to three companies,” he points out.

Karel Ménard pleads for smaller landfills, receiving waste from their surrounding environment, in order to “raise the awareness of generators”.

Still need to bury

Waste Connections argues that the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) indicated in its report on the management of “ultimate residues”, in January 2022, that new disposal sites or expansions of existing sites will be necessary. over the next 20 years.

“It is obvious that we are going to have to have new authorizations, we will not achieve zero waste tomorrow morning, answers Karel Ménard, but [Waste Connections] fuels the problem of overproduction of waste. »

The BAPE report also pointed out that Quebec should prioritize reduction at source and stop relying on recycling to reduce the amount of waste it generates.².

Noise, GHG and leachate

The expansion of the Lachenaie site would lead to various impacts during the development phase, including the emission of dust and exhaust gases, noise, traffic and the loss of natural environments, indicates the company, specifying that the closest residences are 750 meters from the site, which is one of the components of the Enviro Connections Complex, which also includes a biomethane production plant, a sorting center and a composting center.

The operation would cause odors and biogas emissions, including methane, a powerful greenhouse gas (GHG).

“The gradual implementation of the active biogas capture system [permettra] to limit these impacts on the environment in a very important way”, affirms Waste Connections, which makes Karel Ménard jump.

“If there is biogas coming out of the cells, it’s an acknowledgment of failure, it means that we buried organic matter that shouldn’t be there,” he says.

A significant release of methane had also been detected by satellite³in November, at the Lachenaie site, which Waste Connections had attributed to a maintenance operation.

The new landfill cells will be equipped with a leachate collection system, which will pass through the pretreatment plant that is already on site before being pumped to the Mascouche-Terrebonne municipal wastewater treatment plant.

The project could be subject to a review by the BAPE, indicated to The Press the office of the Minister of the Environment, the Fight Against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks, Benoit Charette.

“The requests for expansion of landfill sites show us that it is essential to reduce the use of landfills as much as possible”, which the Legault government has tackled with the modernization of deposit and collection. selection and the strategy to promote the composting of organic matter, further declared the Minister’s press attaché, Mélina Jalbert.