CMC has learned that the Department of Environment and Climate Change has granted Halifax Regional Municipality an extension until Jan.24, 2022 to submit the results of its recent consultation with the community. The consultation, styled as a survey, ended Dec.3. Comments from respondents to The Otter Lake Waste Water Processing and Disposal Facility Survey were supposed to have been compiled and submitted by Dec.23, 2021. The reason for the delay is unknown.<\/p>\n
The community consultation, held at the request of the provincial department, was required to complete the HRM-Mirror Nova Scotia Ltd. application to have the front-end processor and waste stabilization facility deactivated at the Otter Lake Landfill. HRM owns the Otter Lake waste disposal facility while Mirror Nova Scotia Ltd. is the operator. Once the HRM-Mirror Nova Scotia Ltd. application is complete, the provincial department has 60 days in which to render a decision.<\/p>\n
Currently the equipment and associated procedures that HRM and Mirror Nova Scotia want to abandon ensure residual organic material and hazardous waste found in residential garbage are removed when they arrive at Otter Lake. The organic waste is rendered inert before it is buried, while hazardous waste is kept out of the landfill.<\/p>\n
Should the sought after changes in operation be granted by the province, Otter Lake would become a truck and dump operation, raising concerns about the possibility of noxious odours, increasing populations of scavenger birds and rodents among other consequences that could particularly affect communities within a five-mile radius of the landfill, notably in the Timberlea, Lakeside, Beechville and Prospect areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"