Ruby Road Waste Disposal Site Expansion

Does the planned expansion threaten Golden Lake?

This is how the Township of Bonnechere Valley describes the plan in its April 2008 Waste Matters Newsletter:

"The collective waste disposal capacity within the Township of Bonnechere Valley will be exhausted within the next 4 to 5 years. In recognition of that fact, the municipality has made the decision to pursue a capacity expansion at an existing waste disposal site; the Ruby Road Waste Disposal Site (WDS). The capacity expansion will not exceed 100,000 m3 which is expected to contribute at least 25 years of solid, non-hazardous, waste disposal capacity to the Township of Bonnechere Valley."

This means that all the waste from the Township, including the town of Eganville, will be trucked to the Ruby Road site from transfer stations around the Township.

You can read all the information the Township has made public on the issue at its web site.

At the August 23, 2008 members meeting and social at Golden Lake Park, a resolution was passed by the membership that a letter be sent to the Township of Bonnechere Valley urging it to research the relative costs of the Ruby site and the Ottawa Valley Waste Recovery Centre option and to report the findings publicly. Read the letter here.

A citizens group opposes the expansion plan

Some concerned residents, including some GLPOA members, have formed a group called Citizens for the Preservation of the Bonnechere Valley (CPBV). The aim of the group is to convince the Township to abandon the plan for the Ruby Road site and instead transfer the waste to the Ottawa Valley Waste Disposal site near Pembroke.

Here is the CPBV Factsheet on the issue.

Here is the CPBV May 2008 Newsletter.

How the GLPOA responded

The GLPOA Board sees the Association's role as helping to inform its members of the issues involved so they can come to their own conclusions on the merits of the Township's plan for the Ruby Road site. The Association hosted an information meeting as follows:

Special Information Meeting: Ruby Road Waste Disposal Site
9:00 am, Saturday, July 19, 2008
St. Andrews Church, Killaloe

The Association invited Cambium Environmental (the Township's consultants), Bonnechere Valley Township Council and those who have been involved in the consultation process through the Public Liaison Committee. About forty people attended the meeting, during which there was a thorough discussion of the issue.