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| NEWS - July 27, 2010 |
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| Councillor continues landfill battle |
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tobias romaniuk
Post Staff
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Lac La Biche County’s application for the proposed Hylo regional landfill is now being reviewed by Alberta Environment, and they’re looking at more than just what was submitted in the county’s official landfill approval application.
In addition to the charts, graphs, and documents compiled by county-hired engineering consultants AECOM (which bought-out the formerly-named UMA Engineering consulting firm) Alberta Environment will also be looking at electro logs and other data from a 500 foot deep well Coun. Dave Lozinski paid to have drilled on the proposed landfill site.
His well, about 120 feet from the well AECOM drilled to check for underground water sources on the proposed landfill site, tells a vastly different story, says Lozinski.
Standing on Crown land that could become part of the new landfill, he begins telling that story by opening a copy of the landfill application the county submitted to Alberta Environment.
He flips the application, a two-inch thick book, to a diagram illustrating the well drilled by AECOM. It shows a 500-feet deep hole of till, which is a clay and sand mixture, without any layers of other material. This is not what’s really beneath his feet though, says Lozinski.
He points to wooden planks on the ground with small piles of sand and clay on top. Each handful-sized mound is paired with a number written on the plank in black marker indicating the depth of the well.
Lozinski commissioned this well to find out exactly was under his feet, and to do that the drillers stopped every five feet, extracting material from the hole and placing it on the board. The process was laborious and time consuming, but worth it, said Lozinski.
One of the arguments over the landfill application has focused on water, with Hylo residents speaking at public hearings for the landfill and anywhere they can get their voice heard. They express their concerns over potential water contamination, if the new landfill were to leak.
Many Hylo residents have water wells for drinking, household and agricultural use, and they are worried their well water may flow beneath the landfill site.
AECOM engineers have previously stated there is no "significant aquifer" under the site, and that while there is groundwater in the area, it doesn’t meet the definition of aquifer used for the purposes of the application. That definition requires a certain amount of water flow in a period of time. Anything less is not considered significant, according to UMA.
But to Lozinski, if there’s water underground then it’s an aquifer, regardless of flow rates. And it doesn’t really matter to him how much water is in the well tapping into the groundwater.
"If it’s water-bearing sand, it’s an aquifer," he said.
So what did Lozinski’s well drilling project uncover?
"We hit 10 water-bearing sand streams," he said, pointing to the ten piles of sand, among the many piles of what looks like clay, but is a clay-sand mix called till. The sand layers are the most likely place to find water, and using altimeters to measure elevation as well as GPS units, Lozinski figures some of these sand layers are at the same depth as some residents’ water wells.
But he didn’t try extracting water from these layers, and the electro-log data as well the piles of sand, only point to the potential for water, while not proving or disproving the existence of aquifers by any definition.
So far, Lozinski has only proved there are layers of sand under the landfill site, pointing to the likelihood of water.
But using GPS and altimeter data plus a knowledge of Hylo water well depths, Lozinski thinks the theory of underground sand streams may hold some water.
"This is where a lot of water wells around here are at, in those sand layers," he said.
Water and soil specialists from Alberta Environment were on site last week, partly as a courtesy to Lozinski, who requested they be there, and partly to better familiarize themselves with the potential landfill site, said spokesperson Trevor Gemmel, adding the ministry plans to accept Lozinski’s findings as part of the review process.
"This is because we want to make the most informed decision," he said.
A public notice of the review process will be issued, and the public will have the opportunity to comment and appeal the decision, said Gemmel, adding the ministry remains impartial, and wants the public to be well informed.
"This process is open and transparent," he said. |
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