A $98,000 grant the Central Coast Regional District five years ago for a community composting project will be returned to the funds because of rising costs.
During a CCRD regular board meeting in January the board received a report from John Manson, manager of special projects, indicating due to funding and operational challenges the CCRD cannot proceed with developing a composting facility.
The funds came from the Ministry of Environment Organics Diversion Program, targeted to community composting, said Manson.
An agreement between the CCRD and the province stipulated the project would be completed by March 2022, and subsequently the CCRD negotiated an extension but the current expiring date was set for March 2024.
It was hoped to provide composting services to the public through an in-vessel composting system, particularly a system called a BIOvator.
“This is a tube style composting system that basically takes municipal compost waste and adds additional products, mostly wood waste, provides a composting environment and out the other end comes ideally class A compost,” Manson explained.
If the standard is met for the class A compost, which is a provincially regulated, the compost can be distributed back to the public.
The project would have required some cement for the BIOvator, a greenhouse structure, blending and grinding equipment and some containers and totes.
Originally the cost of the composting facility was estimated in 2019 at the time of the application for funding to be about $160,00, including an in-kind portion of $15,000 by staff.
“There was roughly $40,000 to $50,000 local contribution to make the project happen. There is not those funds in the capital budget at this time. All we have is the $98,000 grant that has been carried forward.”
Costs have also gone up and the BIOvator, Manson said, has gone up 50 per cent and is not $55,000 whereas it was $35,000 in 2019. He said he full expects all the other costs such as concrete to have gone up as well.
“We are now looking about a $250,000 project if we were going to proceed today with implementing it. Nothing has been purchased at this stage. It’s basically been desk work.”
Another issue is the timing.
Manson said the CCRD spoke with provincial staff to see if it could be extended potentially for another year, but that is not an option, he added.
He said in discussions with the ministry the CCRD looked at some other options such as what Nelson has been doing by subsidising small composting machines that people can use in their homes.
Unfortunately, he told the board, that is a different funding source whereas the grant the CCRD received is for local governments to provide composting and reduces greenhouse gases through community composting.
A third issue is the constant attention required to run the BIOvator.
“The process is a live process, just like a sewage treatment plant. You cannot leave it. I don’t think it is feasible to show up twice a week and feed the thing so we would need to have somebody coming there every other day,” Manson said.
In Ladysmith when he worked there he said they ran a composting facility for municipal sludge.
They ran it outside with backhoes and feed-stock and were successful in meeting the Class A compost requirements but were doing it outside and there were odors.
“We ended up with a $3 million project down the line where we had to build a building, a filtration system and do that same kind of composting system. It actually works quite well, but it is a constant 24-hour effort to control odors and make sure the filters work.”
There is an operating component that cannot be avoided, and Manson said he does not think the operations budget has enough room today to just absorb it.
“I don’t think you have enough there to adequately run the services you are now providing and we are doing our best to try and catch up.”
The board voted all in favour of letting the province know the CCRD cannot proceed with the project due to funding and operational challenges.
Chair Jaime Kennedy thanked him for the report.
“That was educational and good to know but it is heart-breaking. Waste diversion is a huge priority for us because our landfill does have a lifespan and keeping as much waste out of the landfill as possible is a very good thing,” Kennedy said.
When asked by a board member if there was any downside to sending that letter to the ministry and chief administrative officer Curtis Slingerland replied “no.”
“We enjoy having a very upfront, honest, open relationship with them and we tell them we want an extension they were quite supportive, but we’ve run to the end here. If we were to make this work it would have a significant taxation impact to meet the operation and capital requirements,” Slingerland said.
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