DEER LAKE — Deer Lake’s dump will eventually be the regional waste management facility for the area.
Garbage from towns as far away as Howley and Woody Point will be taken to Deer Lake for disposal when those communities’ waste facilities close later this year.
Town officials say they will offer assistance as the process continues, to help with the transition. The statement came after Deer Lake council members attended a meeting last week with Western Regional Waste Management chairman Don Downer. Mayor Dean Ball said Deer Lake’s site would be offered as other communities in the region close their sites in future.
“We’re following up with the waste management committee to see if we can be of some assistance as the largest community in the region,” said Ball. “We’re asking other communities if there is anything we can help with in assisting moving to the regional site.”
Whether communities are responsible for trucking their own garbage or Deer Lake would take on the pickup duties remains to be seen. Ball said one option could be to use one truck to create a pickup schedule, for example, to go to Howley one day, Woody Point the next, and so on.
“We’ll move forward with the regional site, right now on the agenda, if there’s anything we can do for the outlying areas, that’s our concern,” he said. “If we can offer assistance in helping them close out their sites.”
He said the overall provincial plan is still being discussed and at this point no decision has been made about whether it will include a western waste management site or if the west coast’s trash will have to be shipped to the central location.
With all that extra garbage coming in from other communities, one concern could be that the landfill, located between Deer Lake and Cormack on Route 430, could run out of room before the 2016 deadline for the provincial plan. But Ball said the facility can handle the extra, and council has been given assurances the site can be expanded if required. Geographically it would have to be expanded in the north section of the facility, he said.
Downer confirmed that smaller towns could see their dumping facilities close within a year. He said Deer Lake’s region could be expanded to include Bonne Bay south and even as far as Trout River, making Deer Lake responsible for garbage pickup in those areas, funded in those areas through tipping fees and collection fees charged locally.
That could take place until 2016, after which time a transfer station will be installed in the Humber Valley, as well as one in the White Bay region.
Downer said he’s more optimistic after meeting with Deer Lake officials, especially in light of recent media reports from participants claiming the information was not getting through.
“Deer Lake to me was simply a case of trying to work with them and say to them that no one is being subversive about this,” he said. “We’re taking a waste management strategy that has been in place for 10 years now and applying it in a sensible way.”
Downer added the committee does not want the cost of the operation to escalate beyond $200 a year, per household.
