As the discussion about landfills in Ottawa heats up with expansion plans for Carp and Navan, it is clear that the City has no interest in defining criteria for when a landfill should be closed. The City is comfortable leaving that up to the Provincial Ministry of the Environment.

Essentially this means that landfill operators in the City are free to request expansions in perpetuity and the approval/denial of the requests will be left to the province.

Here is our list of criteria for when we believe a landfill should be closed (or at least not be eligible for expansion). Any one of these criteria alone might not qualify, however, 2 or more of them would warrant serious consideration for closure:

1. Uncontainable / uncontrollable contaminations from the existing site (i.e. leachate in groundwater, off-site odours, blowing garbage.)

2. Site has become the main visual impact for the area.

3. Quantity of vehicles on the access road leading to the site are predominantly non-waste related.

4. Existence of the site is a dis-incentive for landfill diversion (i.e. total yearly landfill tipping capacity in the area exceeds 40% of total annual waste generation). For example, in Ottawa in 2005 there was approximately 1million tonnes of waste generated and the 5 area landfills provide a yearly tipping capacity of approximately 800K tonnes (Carp: 300K, Navan: 200K, Lafleche: 100K, Trail: 150K, Springhill: 50K). Target diversion from landfill should be at least 60%, so > 40% landfill capacity is a dis-incentive. Current landfill capacity is 80% of waste generated. Without Carp, landfill capacity is still 50%, and without Navan and Carp it is 30%. Existence of the landfill can also be a dis-incentive by offering a tipping fee lower than available or proposed diversion implementations.

5. Extreme population infill near site (i.e. 1000 people < 1km and/or 5000 < 3km. Note:This criteria relates to point 1, uncontainable / uncontrollable contaminations.

6. Equivalent capacity exists in more environmentally-conscious landfills in the area. Landfill is the least desirable destination for waste and area capacity should be prioritized based on level of environmental consciousness.