LANDFILL TO ACCEPT WASTE FROM OUTSIDE TOWN BOUNDARIES UNTIL MARCH
Posted on 18 August 2009 by admin
OSOYOOS TIMES-August 19, 2009
By Laurena Weninger - Osoyoos Times
The Town of Osoyoos will allow septic waste from rural areas to be dumped at the Osoyoos Landfill for a little while longer.
At its Aug. 17 meeting, Osoyoos town council unanimously agreed to extend the deadline for closing the landfill to rural waste from the beginning of September to the end of March, 2010.
March is when the nearby Osoyoos Desert Centre opens for the season.
After that date, liquid waste from anywhere other than within town boundaries will not be accepted.
The extension is in response to a request from Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) chief administrative officer Bill Newell, who asked the Town to reconsider the cut-off date while the RDOS studied other options for liquid waste disposal in the South Okanagan.
Council received the request from the RDOS in July but postponed a decision pending more information about how long of an extension the RDOS was looking for.
At the Aug. 17 meeting, Osoyoos’s chief administrative office, Barry Romanko told council that the RDOS is looking at many options, including the possible use of the Osoyoos Wastewater Treatment Plant for the treatment of liquid waste from rural areas.
While council approved the six-monthdeadline extension, it also unanimously agreed that it was only a temporary measure to address the issue.
reporter@osoyoostimes.com
The Osoyoos town council never ceases to amaze me. Here we have a group of decision makers who seem to have trouble seeing the big picture. Isn’t banning all septic dumps from outside their boundaries for fear of upsetting a few tourists a bit drastic? It seems the location of the Desert centre wasn’t that well thought out in the first place. Septic pools or no septic pools, dumps stink. Or maybe they actually think that the good townfolk’s shit doesn’t stink?
Lets see now, aren’t both the town dump and the desert centre both located outside the town boundaries. As I see it we have a regional district who in a neighborly community spirit has co-operated with and accomodated the town and desert centre to operate their facilities outside of the town boundaries. Isn’t there a more neighborly solution here?
One possibility might be outfitting the main sewage treatment plant with a dump station.