Saskatchewan’s new environmental code is finally in place, but it doesn’t include chapters on climate change, landfills and domestic waste water.
Environment minister Scott Moe said the ministry and stakeholders have more work to do on those issues.
Ray Orb, acting president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, said RMs had concerns about those chapters.
“We made it clear to the ministry that we wanted to talk more about those, particularly landfills,” Orb said after Moe announced the code.
“We had some concerns about the added costs that might be passed on to municipalities. I indicated to the minister this morning that we’re going to continue the dialogue on that one.”
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Officials said there was concern about whether proposals dealing with landfills would solve problems. The draft code, released in January 2012, looked at requirements for design, construction, operation and decommissioning of landfills.
Orb said SARM is also concerned about spreading liquid domestic waste.
“We realize that there are sensitive areas, but at the same time we think we should be able to continue doing that because in a lot of cases municipalities … or private people don’t have any other options,” he said.
The draft code said the practice would not be allowed within five years of the code coming into force and suggested 20 new small lagoons would be needed at a cost of $14 to $20 million to contain waste water that was once spread.
