Waste Recovery and Reduction Technologies Sites Gets Tie Vote

Thursday, 13 June 2019 08:47

It is a "wait and see" game now regarding Waste Recovery and Reduction Technology sites, after council ends in a tie vote on the issue defeating the motion.

OXFORD COUNTY - There was no decision made on Oxford County council's recent proposal of the preferred Waste Recovery and Reduction Technology site locations.

The initial proposal was to have staff approve the WRRT site from the Public Works department, which would help extend the life span of the landfill towards the year 2100.

CAO for Oxford County Peter Crockett says the motion was defeated after staff reached a tie vote.

"Today's report was bringing forward for council to consider the sites for the locations of key pieces of technology we'd be looking to implement, that being the Oxford County Waste Management Facility and the Ingersoll Wastewater Treatment Plant. We need approval of those locations so we could then take those locations to take to the next phase of the work to understand our value for money under different procurement models, so that council would then be presented with a fulsome group of information before they would be asked to actually procure anything and under what model. Today's vote was a tie vote which means the motion in front of council, which was to adopt the recommendations of the report, was defeated. Following that, council had a discussion to give better direction to staff in terms of what that means going forward, that something would come back at a later date."

Moving forward, Warden Larry Martin says it's a wait and see approach.

"It's wait and see. There's so many factors going on right now throughout the province and in Oxford County. It's just mind boggling with what's happening."

Martin says the regional review and the provincial budget were among the reasons why a decision wasn't made at this time.

The County's pursuit of the WRRT has been ongoing for more than two years. According to council's report, this comes after a lengthy assessment of various waste technologies, garbage composition audits and a public consultation and engagement campaign.

Crockett says council awarded a consultant to work with staff to undertake an evaluation on the WRRT in August 2018, in order to achieve zero waste goals and extend the service life of the landfill to the year 2100.

The work has cost $987,294.00 and to date council has paid $189,361,73.

The Oxford County Waste Management Facility in Salford would be used for an enhanced material recovery and the Wastewater Treatment Plant in Ingersoll would be for biological treatment of food waste organics.

The report also states both methods were endorsed by council last year in July as the preferred approach to Oxford's zero waste goals.