Landfill's waste is tainting water, report warns Facility leaking harmful chemicals 180 years ahead of schedule; reserve's drinking supply at risk of

Facility leaking harmful chemicals 180 years ahead of schedule; reserve's drinking supply at risk of contamination

MARK HUME From Friday's Globe and Mail
VANCOUVER — A massive landfill near Cache Creek where Metro Vancouver has dumped nearly eight million tonnes of waste is leaching toxic pollutants into the surrounding environment, tainting local wells and raising health concerns about drinking water, according to a new study. Although the Cache Creek landfill was designed to contain leachate for 200 years or more, it is leaking heavy metals, hydrocarbons, phenols and an array of chemicals after only 20 years, said Michael Easton, president and CEO of International EcoGen Inc. "I was quite floored by it," said Dr. Easton, whose company investigated the site for the Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council, with funding from Health Canada. "We were trying to establish baseline data. We hadn't thought we'd find anything like this." Built in an arid climatic zone, in a natural depression and sealed with a liner, the dump was supposed to be secure from leaks. But the researchers found traces of leachate almost everywhere they looked outside the dump site, including in the Bonaparte River, in a coyote's liver and in rainbow trout, as well as in groundwater. Dr. Easton said a hydrogeological evaluation, done by Summit Environmental Consultants Ltd. in conjunction with his research, found groundwater is flowing under the landfill site and into a fractured bedrock zone that is carrying leachate toward a major drinking water source for the Ashcroft Indian Reserve. He said tests showed that some irrigation and drinking-water wells are already tainted.

"Are there health concerns? For sure, where there is arsenic or too much selenium in the water," he said. Dr. Easton said it appears that as the leachate moves through the ground, it is pulling heavy metals out of the surrounding rocks, making it even more of a concern. Although only small amounts of pollutants were found in a few drinking-water wells, it's enough to sound alarm bells, he said. "If it was my personal drinking-water source, I wouldn't be drinking it. ... I wouldn't even be showering in it," he said. Dr. Easton said the polyethylene liner used to seal the base of the landfill pit was too thin and was installed wrinkled, increasing chances of leaks. Pipes in a drainage system have become clogged, causing leachate to pool and hasten deterioration of the liner. And it's now clear it was a mistake to build the landfill in a dry climate zone, he said, because that extends the polluting life of the site. While the liner was designed to last 200 years, the landfill will be producing pollutants for up to 1,000 years, he estimated. "I would expect in less than 200 years that liner is going to be not very appropriate... perhaps, conceivably, in 40 years it could be rendered useless.... [leaching] could really increase then," Dr. Easton said.

Dr. Easton said containment is not his specialty and he did not know what could be done to stop the leachate from spreading. He said government funding for his research has ended even though the full extent of the leachate field hasn't been determined. The report is clear in its findings, stating: "The construction of this landfill, although meeting the regulatory requirements of 1989, was, by today's standards, grossly under-engineered. The initial perception by the design engineers that no leachate would form because of the dry climate has proven incorrect." The report states that leachate has "contaminated at least three private domestic wells in current use that are located at 1 to 2 kilometres south of the landfill," and it is thought leachate has migrated up to six kilometres south. The report recommends that steps be taken to "ensure residents are not consuming potential landfill leachate impacted well water," and that more sampling be done "to assess the extent of landfill leachate migration into the Bonaparte River and the Thompson River."

The Cache Creek landfill opened in 1989. It receives about 500,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste a year from the Metro Vancouver Regional District. The site is expected to reach capacity next year, but there are proposals to expand the existing site or move to a new location. Vancouver has plans to shift to a system that incinerates garbage in waste-to-energy facilities. In addition to investigating the Cache Creek landfill, Dr. Easton also looked at a much smaller landfill used by local communities. He concluded the Chaumox landfill, which was built in 1987 without a liner, is leaching pollutants into the Fraser River, but more assessment is needed to determine the ecological impacts. Garbage in, garbage out

Pollutants found in landfill's leachate,Dissolved organic material containing volatile fatty acids, fulvic acids and humic acids; Trace heavy metals; Inorganic substances such as sulfide, chloride and ammonia; Organic contaminants originating from household chemicals, plastic decomposition, pesticides and flame retardants;Fly ash that contains dioxins and furans.

International EcoGen Inc. report's findings The Cache Creek landfill "has been under-engineered by today's standards." Contaminants are escaping the landfill and are entering both the Bonaparte River and groundwater, resulting in the contamination of wells up to two kilometres from the dump.