County moves on new landfill site
by Richard Blanchard

Simcoe county's council has made a first step towards constructing a new landfill site in the northern part of the county.

Simcoe County councillors voted six to four at the Corporate Services committee to begin preliminary work on the site located north of Elmvale.

Simcoe County would spend $659,000 on roads and a storm-water pond into the site this year which would be followed with the installation of a test liner in 2008.

The site, which is one of three proposed landfill facilities in the county which were originally proposed 20 years ago. A site in Adjala-Tosorontio was turned down in 2001.

"In Oro-Medonte, we have the biggest dump in the county, and the old Medonte dump. The county has spent $3,000,000 to surround the old dumpsite. Maybe that's an option, to expand that." said Oro-Medonte deputy mayor Ralph Hough.

But the county's options are limited in terms of dealing with waste with less than a decade of capacity left in its existing landfill sites. County warden Tony Guergis said that a recent workshop on waste management for county councillors revealed that the county wasn't big enough to support a state of the art incinerator which would create energy from waste.

"We are too small which would require us to open our borders to waste from outside the county," he said. The county has had a longstanding policy against importing waste. "Landfill is still our most inexpensive option in terms of disposing of waste," said Guergis.