Centre promised to sort out odor, noise problems

Pierrefonds/Roxboro bourough and Les Entreprises Environnementales Pierrefonds, which owns a landfill centre infamous for creating neighbourhood problems over the last few years, have announced the place will turn over a new leaf when it is reborn as a sorting centre next spring, but some nearby residents remain sceptical.

"We're going to throw the trash in different sectors," explained LEEP's public relations director Gilles Mousseau in a visit to The Chronicle last week. According to LEEP's plan, which was four years in the making, the landfill on Oakwood Street off of St. Charles Boulevard will thus become a sorting centre.

Materials such as wood, paper, cardboard, metals, plastic, gypsum, etc. will all be dumped into separate bins, which are then emptied into trucks that will carry the refuse to different recycling centres according to its nature, explained Mousseau. This will be done in a new building.

Wood, for example, will go to Tafisa Canada, a Lac Megantic-area manufacturer of particleboard and thermofused melamine panels.

Mousseau said he and his three partners who now run LEEP are well aware of the problems associated to the landfill centre in the past. Malodorous trash has been a common complaint among residents of streets across from the centre, and noise from trucks coming to and fro has been troublesome as well. In 2005, a fire caused by misplaced wood shingles resulted in a strong, sulphur-like smell that lasted for weeks.

Mousseau said the air purification system was completely redone after the fire in 2005, accounting for less of an odor problem in the area. He added the odor problems will be completely gone once the sorting centre opens up.

Though there will be extra trucks to carry the refuse back outside the centre, Mousseau said a road paved within the landfill area specifically for the trucks means there would not be any noise increase. He estimated about 175 daily will come through the sorting centre, which is 25 over the current number. "(Engineering and construction firm) Roche Group said we could go over 400 trucks more, but we decided not to," he added.

Borough councillor Betrand Ward said council followed LEEP's activities very closely to ensure none of them would bother residents. "We were really rigid about the policy," Ward said, adding the renewal of the purification system cost LEEP well over $1.5 million.

Ward said two members who represent citizens on the council's evaluation team were themselves satisfied the project would not create problems before LEEP was given the green light.

"What is very interesting also is we are going according to the (Quebec) recycling program," highlighted Ward, stating this sorting centre will help Pierrefonds/Roxboro to meet the Environment Ministry's requirement that 60 per cent of all materials be recycled by 2008.

Mousseau said LEEP has secured every permit required of it to operate save for one by the Quebec Environment Ministry, which he expects they will receive by September. He added about 2,000 area residents will be informed of LEEP's plans through a pamphlet delivery in the coming weeks.

Despite all this, however, some residents near Oakwood remained sceptical of the sorting centre. "On humid nights, it still smells," said Jean Charbonneau, who lives on an adjacent street corner. "There is still noise," he added, particularly when truck drivers dump their load and slam their tanker doors shut before leaving.

"I don't think you'll find anyone who'll say (they are not bothered)," said Chantal Dorsainville, who lives two streets down from the landfill centre. "I have been here for the last two years," she said, "and I smell the same odor."

Rose St. Gérard, who said she just moved to the neighbourhood two weeks ago, has noticed a smell as well. "Some days, you just totally forget," she said, but on others, there is no way to get past the stench.

One resident who wished to remain anonymous was upset to find out LEEP's original turn-over date of the territory to Pierrefonds/Roxboro, 2015, was delayed by seven years. "We've been told by the city that this will turn into a park," she said.

Ward said the park plan is still in the works, but it will not be happening until 2022.

According to Mousseau, about 20 jobs will be created thanks to the sorting centre once it starts operating in March.

Quebec's Environment Ministry did not return requests for comment as of press time.

Chronicle, courtesy photo