MD of Foothills officials are tired of cleaning up after people dumping garbage along rural roads and they’re working to find a solution.
Two recent incidents of commercial or demolition loads being dumped on MD roads have public works and the landfill authority scrambling to clean up. In one case a large pile of shingles and wood debris was dumped on a road, while the second included what appears to be concrete and debris.
“In the most recent dumping incident, it seems someone pulled out a commercial parking lot,” said MD chief executive officer Harry Riva-Cambrin.
The fine for dumping in the MD can be as much as $5,000 but if offenders are not caught in the act no legal action can be taken, he said.
“You can even find their garbage and find something in there like a prescription or a bill with their name on it, but if you don’t see them actually dumping their garbage there is no legal proof,” he said.
The MD hopes residents can help by reporting instances of dumping to the landfill for clean-up, and also taking photos of offenders in the act.
“If residents did have photos and then were willing to testify, then we could do something about it that way,” said Riva-Cambrin.
Cleaning up large loads of garbage costs the MD a minimum of $2,000 with the manpower and equipment necessary to take care of the garbage, he said. In addition, removing piles of garbage takes labourers away from the important jobs on MD roads and if it is not discovered until later in the day, there is extra cost incurred from crews working overtime, said Riva-Cambrin.
“Really it’s quite disruptive to the entire operation,” he said.
Riva-Cambrin said there is a theory that the increase in people dumping garbage loads along roads is due to slowing economy, changes in employment and wages and higher landfill fees.
MD councillor Ted Mills is not convinced the increased dumping fees are the cause of the growing number of incidents, and said the MD will have to explore the issue further.
“I doubt the dumping is happening because of the rates,” he said. “There are some people who are going to dump no matter what, and we can’t really stop that. It has always happened on a fairly regular basis.”
The landfill rates were raised in 2015 to match those in Calgary, partially to deter city demolition and commercial companies from bringing their loads out to the MD to save money, he said.
The increase worked as intended, and Mills said there was a significant reduction in the number of Calgary users after the rate changed, easing the demand on the MD of Foothills landfill site.
Costs of cleaning up loads from the MD roads could potentially impact those fees further, he said, as operation costs may have to be offset by user fees, he said.
“We do our best to keep the ditches and the area surrounding the landfill clean. That’s our job, and it becomes part of the tipping fees,” said Mills. “As it becomes more prevalent in ditches the cost to remove it increases and therefore our tipping fees could be inflated over time.”
In the meantime, Mills encourages residents to exercise due diligence and report any dumping incidents to the landfill.
“It’s all we can do. You can’t monitor secluded areas on a regular basis without absorbing even more cost, so we really just have to rely on the honesty of businesses and residents,” he said.
