New equipment to be installed at landfill to quell smell and noise!

Noise and odour complaints about a former gravel quarry in Pierrefonds reach back more than 40 years.

The former Meloche gravel quarry off Oakwood St., has been a dry landfill for close to 23 years now and the complaints just keep on coming. There is the rotten-egg odour to contend with, a result of stagnant water mixing with rotting construction debris, and there are the vibrations being both heard and felt in the sector. The vibrations come from the equipment being used to capture the gas.

Pierrefonds-Roxboro Mayor Jim Beis said the situation is on the verge of being addressed once and for all.

“The landfill is full now and all operations will cease by 2023,” Beis said. “The area has suffered enormously, but were nearing the end of the road.  The company who owns the landfill (Matrec) recently received authorization to install a building to hold new (gas) burners. The system should be installed by Sept. or Oct. and it will take up to 18 months to completely rid the landfill of gas emissions.”

Matrec did not respond to a request for information.

The equipment already in place has been working at 100 per cent capacity, but a more advanced system is required to complete the gas capture.

Beis said the vibrations people have been experiencing are caused by a faulty piece of equipment which will be replaced.

“The first step was to fill (the landfill). The second step was to eliminate the gas. The third step is to transform the land into a green space,” Beis said.

A bit of background.

In the mid-80s, residents complained about the noise caused by blasting and the truck traffic at what was then a gravel quarry.

The idea to transform the quarry into a dry landfill was floated at that time, followed by a suggestion to turn it into a compost-and-storage facility.

The 11-hectre quarry was abandoned in 1991 after which the owner at the time was given the green light to turn the quarry into a dry landfill. Opposition from people concerned about noise and negative impact on property values triggered a register.

Following public hearings, it was recommended that the Quebec Environment Ministry reject the plan for a dry landfill. But in 1998 the recommendations were set aside and the company Entreprises Environnementale de Pierrefonds was given ministry approval to bury construction waste at the site.

The idea was to fill the 20-storey deep hole with dry construction debris over 15 years, plant grass and transfer ownership to the city for $1.

In 2000, a fire broke out. The water used to put out the fire pooled at the bottom of the quarry and putrified. It soaked debris, which rotted and emitted an onerous stench. The water was treated with 50,000 litres of hydrogen peroxide before it was flushed into the sewer system. The smell dissipated, but residents, unsuccessfully, called for the landfill to be closed.

In 2004, the smell returned again and an expert in handling industrial waste said the rotting debris could be a fire hazard. At the end of 2004, another fire broke out, resulting in acrid smoke filling the air.

In 2005 the owner purchased new pumping equipment to remove stagnant water which had accumulated when the site was soaked over a number of days to put out the fire.

In 2007, the government approved the installation of gas wells to capture and burn off the foul-smelling gas seeping from the site. But the odour returned in 2010. A second phase in the biogas capture system was installed in 2011.

Beis said the inspiration for the future green space will be the transformation which is taking place at the site of the former Miron quarry in the east of the city. What was once a gaping quarry is now Parc Frédéric Back, a nature space that occupies 153 of 192 hectares of the St-Michel environmental complex. The complex includes a recyclables recovery facility and a biogas facility which captures gas to heat and cool the adjacent TOHU contemporary circus facility.