The number of odour complaints about the Twin Creeks Landfill has tripled in the last year.
That’s according to Alex Ciccone from Garrod Pickfield LLP . The legal firm acts as Warwick Township’s technical review team and provides a yearly report of operations at Ontario’s largest landfill just outside of Watford.
While Ciccone told council Monday the landfill is well run, the number of complaints from the community about odour reached “an all time high” in 2022.
Ciccone says in 2017, when the complaints were first tracked, just one citizen launched a complaint with the company. By 2018, there were eight complaints.
Complaints skyrocketed in 2019 to 51, but Ciccone says most of those were attributed to a nearby biosolids fertilizer storage area.
It was deemed to be a commercial business operating in an agricultural area and was found guilty of a zoning infraction.
The company, Lasalle Agri, moved the product from the site and Ciccone says there was “a drastic decrease” the following year, with only 26 complaints.
But in 2022 – the year the technical review team analysed – there were 73 complaints made directly to Waste Management which operates the facility; 68 were related to odour.
Ciccone told council the company did have “issues with a gas collection system” in 2022 which led to the stink. But he said the issue has to be examined.
Ciccone says the committee is suggesting meetings with WM to work out some of the odour concerns. He would also like better communication and “more frequent updates on the status of the landfill gas collection system.
“If it is down, give us notice and let us know how long it will be down – so the township knows.”
The committee suggested, and councillors agreed, there should be a meeting to talk about the complaints. Ciccone says meetings with WM have been “productive” in “helping to lower complaints in the past.”
