Inuvik (Aug 01/03) - A council decision to allow a piece of town property to be used as a dumping ground has taken money from the pockets of local landfill operators.

At last Wednesday night's town council meeting they denied a request from Gwich'in-owned Chii Construction to have a reduction in tipping fees, but approved the sale of land to be used to dump waste from the hospital demolition.

Of an estimated 1,000 loads of waste, about 750 loads would be taken to the empty lot.

Mayor Peter Clarkson said the town had received a letter from Arctic Environmental Engineering saying the material leaving the hospital site is free of contaminants and that all liability would be assumed by Arctic Environmental.

Ron Morrison, Regional Superintendent for Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, said RWED would not monitor the site, but they didn't have a problem with filling the site with clean building materials.

Albert Bernhardt, owner of A&B Salvage -- which manages the town's landfill -- stands to lose all the tipping fees from the waste diverted to the lot.

"I can't see that; they're just creating another dump," Bernhardt said. "Other businesses will be looking at that and say, 'Why pay tipping fees, when you can just buy a lot and if it's less money, you just bury it underneath."

At the hospital site, Bernhardt watched as the demolition crew loaded the waste and said there was more than just organic fill being dumped at the Gwich'in-owned site.

"There's tons of nails in there and tons of hangars in there too," he said. "They just collapsed it, ran over it and just took the sump pipes out of it -- the rest they just left.

"All that goes right into the waterway," he added. "If it rains heavy, all that goes down to the lagoon."

Bernhardt's partner Barb Armstrong applauds the innovative use of organic fill as a resource management, but questions the process and the motive.

"If you need to fill a lot and you would have to buy the fill anyway, then use the organic fill, but if you're just making an excuse to not pay tipping fees after you've already bid a contract and you're just trying to save a dollar, that's different," Armstrong said.

She and Bernhardt were curious to see what was being dumped at the lot, so after the council meeting they drove out to take a look.

"They were dumping non-stop all day (July 23) and I don't understand how they can do that," Armstrong said. "They made the decision to do that at about (7:50 p.m.) that night, when they were already doing it all day."

"The hole is long since filled in," she said. "This is not about filling in a hole -- it's about getting rid of their greenery around there."

Armstrong also worries about the precedent that's set by this decision.

"Tipping fees are in place to make the producers and the generators responsible for their waste at some level," she said. "I'd like to see them try and pull a stunt like this in the South -- it wouldn't happen."

Asbestos buried

Part of the waste from the dump included asbestos insulation that was buried in the landfill in a recently capped cell.

Bernhardt was instructed to dig down six feet and bury the bagged asbestos and cap the hole with dirt.

"As long as it's not loose, I don't have a problem with it," Bernhardt said.

Armstrong said they do not ordinarily accept hazardous goods at the landfill, which were usually trucked down the road to the hazardous waste site, but there was an exception made for the hospital.