REGINA – Studies are under way to develop plans for two regional waste management pilot projects announced last year by the Saskatchewan government.
Don Elsaesser, Saskatchewan Environment project officer, said the first phase of the studies will be completed by the end of January, 1995. They will address how waste will be collected and establish locations for landfills and transfer stations. Sites are expected to be chosen by October 1995.
Transfer stations will receive and temporarily store recyclable materials and solid waste until they are shipped to another site for reprocessing or disposal in a sanitary landfill.
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“The actual construction and development of the various elements could begin in late 1995, early ’96 and will likely be developed through 1996,” Elsaesser said.
All existing waste management systems and disposal sites in the project areas will be examined in the study and recommendations made on phasing them out. Elsaesser said decommissioning could take several years.
He also said the public will be consulted throughout the process.
The two pilot projects are in the Frenchman Valley in southwestern Saskatchewan and in the Carlton Trail area east of Saskatoon.
The Frenchman Valley project has grown over the past year to include eight rural municipalities and the same number of communities, including Eastend, Shaunavon, Admiral, Bracken, Climax, Dollard, Frontier and Val Marie. The regional waste management facility will serve about 7,000 people now using more than 10 landfills.
UMA Environmental is conducting the study along with the environment department.
The Carlton Trail project is slightly larger, serving more than 20,000 people in 10 rural municipalities and 18 towns and villages, including Wakaw, Humboldt, Watson, St. Brieux and Cudworth. The participating municipalities now use more than 20 landfills.
Clifton and Associates is working with the government to develop the Carlton Trail management plan.
The pilot projects are costing the province $1.5 million over four years. It has not yet been determined how the money will be split between the two projects.
