Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug10/01) - The city's waste management committee recently came up with a strategy to increase the life of the dump and save the city money in the long run.

According to a recent report, the new strategy will increase the life of the dump by three years, cut closing costs by $300,000 and reduce waste management costs by around $2.4 million over the next 20 years.

To implement the strategy next year the city needs to hire a waste coordinator at a cost of $62,000 a year and invest $62,000 into an education strategy and other program work.

The total cost of the strategy over the next 20 years is around $1.5 million.

The report is based on a study done by EBA Engineering titled "City of Yellowknife community Waste Management Strategic Plan."

The report will go before council on Aug 20 at the priorities, policies and budget committee meeting.

Greg Kehoe, acting director of public works, said he's optimistic the project will pass this year's budget deliberations.

"I think it can work. It'll be fine in conjunction with 2002 budget but it will have to compete with other projects," said Kehoe.

"We'll do our best to justify it," he said. "It will help clean up the environment and save taxpayers money," said Kehoe, adding, "the final product is sound."

The dump is scheduled for closure in 2007/2008 under the current strategy.

Kehoe said the city is still doing more work on the numbers.