Where is the best place for an organic waste processing facility in Jasper?

That’s the $25,000 question the Municipality of Jasper has hired SYLVIS, an environmental consulting firm, to find out.

Lori Rissling-Wynn, environmental stewardship co-ordinator for the town, spent a day last week showing environmental scientist Denise Vieira around the two possible sites for the facility.

“They were here to look at the two sites that we’ve shortlisted and work out which site is best,” Rissling-Wynn said, noting that the recommendations for the company were not expected until the end of February, 2010.

The inspection was an opportunity to show Vieira and a representative from Conestoga-Rovers & Associates (CRA), who will recommend technology for the facility, to have a look around the waste water treatment plant and the transfer station, she said.

“It was really just fact finding, they came to ask a lot of questions, see what was happening on the ground,” she said, “talking to operators and transfer station staff.”

While these two sites are the main focus for Vieira and SLYVIS, it is possible that if neither site is appropriate they would recommend a different site in Jasper.

But for now, the company will focus on the transfer station and the waste water treatment plant.

“We’ve limited our scope to those two sites, but if we were to find maybe there was a point of discussion then we might recommend they look for a different site,” Vieira said.

The recommendations will be based on technical, social, environmental and economic areas that they will then discuss with the municipality, she said.

“You can’t just look at one factor by itself, you’ve got to look at in consideration of all the other factors,” she added. “At the end of the day there maybe one reason why one site is selected over the other.”

Vieria will work with CRA so that whatever technology is chosen for the site there will be enough physical space and appropriate landscape for the facility.
For example, she asked “is there the area there and could it be increased in size?”

The municipality will also have to take into consideration the visibility of the facility, she said. Some towns would proudly display their buildings while others would prefer the building to be hidden within the natural landscape.

Transportation was also an important factor to take into account, she said. “Smaller distances are preferable because of greenhouse emissions and economics.”

Another consideration for Vieria is the surrounding areas, the neighbours of the future composting facility.

If it’s at the transfer station, the neighbours would be more industrial. If it’s at the waste water treatment plant, Pine Bungalows would be next door, she noted.

“How is the neighbour likely to feel about that site?” she questioned.

For Vieria, it’s also important what the community thinks and noted that an environmental assessment would have to be done once a site is chosen – which would have a community consultation component.

The environmental impacts of the selected site will also be taken into consideration when putting forward a recommendation she said, which is particularly important in the national park.