Welcome to the Otter Lake Community Monitoring Committee’s website.
Here you can find out about the origins and mandate of the Community Monitoring Committee, get current news, and access our newsletters and other documents in our library. You will find our schedule of meetings as well as the agendas and minutes. And you will also find links to important community-based organizations in the communities that are nearest to the Otter Lake Landfill.
The Otter Lake Landfill has been operating since 1999, serving Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM). It is owned by HRM, operated under contract by Mirror Group, and is monitored by us on behalf of the residents of HRM and especially the local communities surrounding the facility.
In its early years Otter Lake Landfill facility was visited by waste managers from around the world. It started as a unique facility with rigorous protection of the local environment and community. Every bit of waste that entered the landfill facility was examined by a Front-End Processor (FEP) and a Waste Stabilization Facility (WSF). Hazardous material was taken out, recyclable material was recovered, and any organic waste was stabilized by aerobic decomposition before it was buried in the landfill. This specialized sorting and processing equipment was in the CMC’s view an important link in a truly integrated waste management system that included curbside collection and composting organic waste, comprehensive recycling, and hazardous waste disposal.
All this changed on Dec. 16, 2022 when the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), with the permission of the Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Climate Change, discontinued operations of the front end processor and waste stabilization facility to make cost savings. In return, the Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Climate Change required, among other things, that the municipality ensure that compostable waste would not exceed 10 per cent of the total amount of municipal solid waste landfilled by mass at the Otter Lake site. The path to this target is in development and HRM now indicates it will take until March 31, 2026 to achieve its 10 per cent goal.