RM of BLUCHER, Sask. – Screeching gulls, roaring trucks and piles of garbage that seem to spawn plastic bags are viewed by some in this community as poor replacements for grain fields.
A proposed landfill site in the country for the 200,000 people of Saskatoon has turned the Carter family into activists and their neighbor into a public speaker.
“I’ve been a quiet housewife for 35 years,” said Dean Thompson, whose farmland adjoins the two proposed parcels of land 30 kilometres east of the city. But this issue has her riled.
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She made a speech to the council of the Rural Municipality of Blucher July 15 urging it to refuse to rezone agricultural land to accommodate the landfill.
Additional proposal
She, Dave and Roseanne Carter and 43 others attended the meeting to voice their opposition to the city proposal. The seven-member council also heard yet another waste proposal in addition to the city’s.
Dave Carter said council appeared “pretty impressed” with the React group’s presentation. It is a garbage system run by a body representing the 20,000 people in towns and municipalities around Humboldt, Sask.
It separates the wastes into recyclables like glass, plastic and paper to be sold and other garbage to be buried. The system was presented as an alternative to the city landfill proposal, said React board member Lloyd Wedewer.
Saskatoon waste manager Richard Prankev said the city proposal is similar to React’s in that the landfill will be reduced through recycling and composting.
He said the city wants a “mutually beneficial solution” that suits it, the RM and those objecting to the landfill.
Dave Carter said no detailed plans have been presented to the 1,155 residents of the RM, a third of whom have signed a petition opposing the city’s proposal.
The Blucher RM council decided to postpone action on garbage disposal. It plans to hold public meetings after harvest this fall so residents can again be consulted about the city proposal, the React system and other alternatives.
The Carters and Thompson say they will not let up on their opposition to the city landfill proposal. They hope local residents won’t become tired of hearing about the issue and become apathetic. The proposal has been public for a year and two public meetings this spring led to the petition.
Won’t let it die
Roseanne Carter said the city has said it will not need to use the two Blucher sites for another 10-15 years, “but we’ll still be here.”
Dave said his family is out of sight of the proposed landfill and “the wind blows the other way” but his opposition stems from concerns about the future – the city said it wants to use each site for 50 years – plus his belief that those who create the garbage should dispose of it within their own boundaries. The two proposed sites are also adjacent to a 50-year-old church used every Sunday by the Carters.
Thompson is concerned about the proximity of the landfill to her house. She said the provincial environment department used to require a 3.2 kilometre minimum. Now the law has reduced the buffer to 500 metres.
