Deer Lake incinerator officially closed DEER LAKE KATHERINE HUDSON The Western Star

The incinerator is seen Monday with no billowing smoke as the last pieces of garbage were burned there on Thursday. — Star photo by Katherine Hudson

After two extensions on the closing deadline of the Deer Lake incinerator, the last piece of garbage was burned at the site on Thursday.

The deadline was scheduled for Nov. 30, yet on Nov. 20, Mayor Dean Ball, town manager Maxine Hayden and town superintendant David Thomas went to the site and declared it officially closed.

In a prepared release, the mayor said as of Nov. 20, waste will still go to the site, yet it will be stockpiled, not burned, until the official landfill is operational. Ball said he expects the landfill to be up and running in about two weeks.

“We are very happy that we could comply with government stipulations to have our incinerator closed by the end of November 2009,” said Ball in the release.

Though there is a conversion process from the incinerator closing to the opening of the landfill site, one change was put into effect when the incinerator closed. At Monday night’s council meeting, the mayor said metals are no longer to go to the incinerator site.

“The day-to-day operations for the incinerator site will carry on as normal. All metals: car wrecks, washers dryers and oil tanks will be directed to Viking metals, formerly Ken’s Auto Salvage on the Viking Trail,” said Ball.

Marine Contractors of Pasadena have been appointed to convert the incinerator site into a landfill site.

The closing of the aging teepee incinerator was a requirement under the Provincial Waste Management Strategy put forward by the Department of Municipal Affairs in 2002. The strategy was designed to develop long-term solutions for modern waste management and reduce the amount of waste going into landfills in the province by 50 per cent.