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Town pays 41% of Evergreen deficit

Members of the Evergreen Regional Waste Commission are stuck with almost $130,000 to pay from a deficit in 2010. The Town of St. Paul passed a motion on March 28 to pay 41.

Members of the Evergreen Regional Waste Commission are stuck with almost $130,000 to pay from a deficit in 2010.

The Town of St. Paul passed a motion on March 28 to pay 41.1 per cent of the cost, nearly $35,000, based on the amount of tonnage sent to Lafond landfill. The commission expects the County of St. Paul to pay 28.4 per cent, Town of Elk Point 10.7 per cent, County of Smoky Lake 11.1 per cent, and the Town of Smoky Lake 8.4 per cent.

Part of the deficit came from costs incurred to fight an appeal of an expansion approval in 2010.

The Alberta Environmental Appeals Board concluded that the original approval protected the surface and groundwater resources in the area around the landfill, according to the executive summary of the board’s report. The board upheld the approval with conditions that Evergreen provide a written plan to ensure any potential uncontrolled releases will not reach off-site water bodies.

While Evergreen had asked the Beaver River Regional Waste Commission to contribute, Beaver River told the commission it did not feel responsible for the appeal or to pay the costs, said Evergreen manager Dennis Bergheim.

“The commission felt that they shouldn’t have to contribute because it’s still part of the appeal cost that was related to them coming here, so they felt it wasn’t fair for them to pay the deficit for this year (2010),” he said.

In the future, Beaver River will pay its share of any future deficit, which would be around 60 per cent as it is the largest contributor to the landfill, he said.

Before Beaver River could haul to Lafond, Evergreen received approval from Alberta Environment to expand. The approval was appealed but regulations permitted Beaver River to continue to haul during the appeal.

While Evergreen does not expect another deficit in 2011, unforeseen costs could come up again, said Bergheim. For now, “it’s business as usual. Everything is running quite good.”

The commission decided to increase tipping rates last fall because it expected the deficit from the appeal costs and operations, said Evergreen chairman and County of St. Paul Coun. Glen Ockerman.

“Now everything is in place and we readjusted the tipping rate and hopefully we’ll function with a balanced budget from here on forward,” he said. The commission hopes building up into airspace will save money as the landfill expands in the future.

Evergreen is working on the design for a new cell to be built in 2012.

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