Dump fire plan to cost $4 million
Expert wants to extinguish flames by dunking garbage in lined pond
Casey Lessard
Northern News Services
Published Monday, July 7, 2014
IQALUIT
After a week working 16 to 18 hours per day investigating the best way to put out the Iqaluit dump fire, which has been burning since May 20, landfill fire expert Tony Sperling says it must be put out.
Gathering his freshly-cleaned gear after spending a week at the Iqaluit landfill fire, expert Tony Sperling was heading home to Vancouver July 4. He expects to return in a few weeks to start putting the fire out, assuming the fire chief can find the $4 million needed to put it out. - Casey Lessard/NNSL photo |
After going through 17 options with a working group of Nunavut-based experts from all levels of government, all agreed that creating a lined pond - and dunking burning garbage into it - is the only way to go.
"We looked at everything," Sperling, who has a Ph.D. in geotechnical engineering and more than 10 years in landfill experience, said over breakfast on July 4.
"The whole team ranked each of these options in terms of likelihood of success, safety, cost, and time, and came down to two options: accelerated burn and overhaul (dunking). Overhaul is going to kick up a lot of steam, so if people start seeing that, I don't want them freaking out."
This method was chosen because accelerated burn is problematic, he said.
"I could have this fire out in one to two weeks if we took long-reach excavators and let it all flare off. When you burn it off slowly, you're getting a limited amount of smoke, but when you burn it off fast, you get a lot of lift and that sucks up all the fine particulate (which would stay in the landfill with a slow burn) and all of the dioxins (cancer-causing chemicals produced when plastics burn) and whatever is in there, and spread it all over the environment."
Consulting with local companies, including heavy equipment provider Tower Arctic, Sperling revised the project cost from $3.4 million on June 30 to $4 million on July 4. Sperling's company, Landfill Fire Specialists, would be the lead contractor, and would also bring in firefighters from across Canada to do the job, freeing Iqaluit firefighters to deal with their daily work.
Seven firefighters from Hellfire Suppression in Alberta will cost the city about $30,000 per day, and local heavy equipment rentals and operators will cost about $25,000 per day, he said. The work will take about two months.
With a June 11 council directive to put the fire out as soon as possible, the only catch now is that Fire Chief Luc Grandmaison has to find the money to make it a reality. Encouraged by discussions with the working group, Sperling expects all levels of government will pitch in, because they should, he said.
"This is going to be a pretty significant expenditure for all parties," he said.
"Iqaluit doesn't have the size of a fire department to take on something that's going to require seven guys."
Sperling has consulted Grandmaison since the early days of the fire, and told Grandmaison he would have no part in letting the fire burn itself out, the approach Grandmaison has taken while waiting for Sperling's arrival.
The Qikiqtani Medical Association - a group made up of doctors from the Qikiqtani General Hospital - and many residents have publicly criticized the move, saying human health is at risk if the fire continues to burn.
| "It's been known for 10 to 20 years now that burning garbage is a bad thing" |
For Sperling, that's not the concern as most days the fire billows smoke away from the city. This attitude has been affirmed by government health officials, who say the risk to public health is minimal.
"To date, 24-hour average air pollution concentrations have been low, and are below established health standards," the health department stated in a July 4 air quality update, noting results from monitoring stations at the four-corners intersection and at the army base.
Indeed, Sperling says the fire must be put out immediately because of the damage it is doing to the environment. As it stands, the smoke is putting dioxins and other toxins out onto tens of thousands of hectares of land and water, he said.
"The Inuit have a code of living with the land and having a minimum environmental impact. As you burn your garbage, you're creating these toxic things. That's totally against their code of taking care of (the environment)."
The territorial and federal governments - the latter of which has spent millions to clean up toxic DEW Line sites - can no longer stand silent as Nunavut communities burn garbage by necessity - as is standard practice in many communities - or by accident.
"It's been known for 10 to 20 years now that burning garbage is a bad thing," said Sperling.
"I can't believe that it's still being supported here as a conscious practice."
It's one thing to put the fire out, but what happens next? History will repeat itself if Iqaluit doesn't start separating its waste. Composting would be a waste of time here, he said, but waste can be separated into electronic waste (e-waste) for special handling, combustibles (paper, cardboard, wood) for burning, recyclables (plastic, metal) for shipping south, and garbage for the landfill.
"If you're going to adopt southern ways of living, you've got to adopt southern ways of waste management," he said. "The city has spent about half of what it should be spending on its landfill, and that's why it's a dump. Now it's come back to bite you guys in the bottom."
Sperling headed home July 4 after a week in the capital. He expects to return in a couple of weeks, assuming officials can find the money to put the fire out.
