Iqaluit to get new $35M dump, replacing current one dubbed 'environmental disaster'

The city of Iqaluit will be getting a new $35-million dump with an improved sorting facility to replace the current one, which the mayor calls "an environmental disaster."

Construction of the new landfill at Upper Base Road will begin in 2019; the current landfill, which the city says "has reached the end of its useful life," is scheduled to close in the fall of 2020 — the same time the new one is expected to be up and running.

"The fact is that this [current] dump has been an environmental disaster and I could tell you the residents are so happy that we got the funding to finally close this dump and get a proper new landfill," said Iqaluit Mayor Madeleine Redfern.

The new facility will have a 20,000 square-foot sorting, recycling and composting station.

It will also have equipment to compress garbage into bales that are one cubic metre in size, wrap it in plastic and those will be stacked in neat, organized rows at the landfill, according to a city Q&A document.

"So what you see here right now, of all this loose garbage flying around, will not happen at the new facility," she said.

Waste headed to the dump is expected to reduce by 44 per cent after the switchover, reducing the carbon footprint of Iqaluit, according to the city.

A new road will also be built to the new landfill.

Designer will be hired

Redfern said the change needed to happen decades ago.

"It's taken a lot of lobbying to secure these dollars," she said.

It was jointly funded by the territorial government and the city of Iqaluit, with about $26.5 million coming from the government of Canada.

A designer is scheduled to be hired in September to work on a detailed design of the new landfill.

In the meantime, a new fence will also be installed at the current landfill to keep waste material controlled on site, according to the city document.

An application will be submitted to regulatory boards later this year, to ensure the project has sound environmental impacts and measures.

Redfern said the city plans to have additional public consultations between now and November.

With files from Michelle Pucci