North Battleford officials had a big headache to deal with in August when hazardous material was brought in to the Waste Management Facility.
It turned out to be asbestos, brought in with material from a house demolition conducted by the Town of Battleford.
What happened, according to the report to planning committee by Director of Utility Services Stewart Schafer, was that the Town had torn down the house without realizing the insulation contained asbestos.
Several loads of the demolished material were brought to the Waste Management Facility. According to Schafer, it was on the third load that the staff noticed the asbestos.
The trucking of the materials was immediately stopped. Once the material tested positive for asbestos, Occupational Health and Safety were called in to conduct a visit to the demolition site as well as the Waste Management Facility.
City officials then developed a proposal to bury the material in the landfill itself. Schafer described the burial site as a dead spot in the landfill that has been marked out and which could never be dug up again, not that they would want to, he added.
Permission from Occupational Health and Safety finally came last week. The work has now been done to bury the material, and Schafer said the next step was to hear back from OH&S on whether it was done correctly.
The rest of the house debris is to be double bagged and brought to the portion of the facility that holds asbestos. That had not happened the first time.
“Where the problem came in was when they brought it out. It was loose, and they just dumped it on the ground,” said Schafer.
The demolished material had to be watered down daily by staff to prevent it from drying out and blowing in the wind.
Councillor Kelli Hawtin wondered about health impacts from the dumping. Schafer said, everyone was using the proper filtration system and suits, including even those running the equipment.
Schafer says he believes what happened should not result in a fine, because they were following all the procedures including stopping the loads as soon as the asbestos was discovered. As for possible fines for the Town, he could not say.
