(File photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Cam Lee

Nipawin landfill

Town of Nipawin awards landfill decommissioning project tender

Jul 24, 2024 | 11:23 AM

The Town of Nipawin has awarded the tender for their landfill decommissioning project.

Council has awarded the tender for the project for $3,775,777.60 at a special council meeting on Monday.

CAO Michele Sorensen told northeastNOW it’s another hurdle to clear in the decommissioning of the landfill.

“This first step is really important because we need to get that cell decommissioned and then get a laydown area set up for our new office building and scale,” Sorensen explained.

General Manager of Operations and Engineering Services Jamie Fast said the tender came in a little higher than anticipated, but at a manageable cost. He said the cost of all projects has skyrocketed since the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“We were going to decommission our whole historic landfill cells, all of them, with the funds we got from ICIP (the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program)…and now it’s down to about a third,” explained Fast. “We can get about a third done compared to what we could have in 2019-2020.”

Fast said the main reason the province wants landfills decommissioned is to prevent leaching into groundwater supplies. Nipawin’s sandy soil base is an issue as well. According to Fast, one option would be for them to put a clay topper on the historic cells to stop water filtration from going through them.

“What we have to do since we don’t have clay, and it’s too far to haul, is we’re going to be putting a (polyurethane) membrane top on,” said Fast. They would then cover that to mitigate any water from seeping into the historic shells, as the water would shed off to the sides. Nipawin currently tests twice a year to ensure the water isn’t penetrating the cells.

Nipawin received just over $2.6 million in ICIP funding for the project, with the town’s contribution nearly $950,000. After the tender was awarded, the town had to transfer an additional $304,000 from their Capital Trust Fund Reserve account.

Fast said the project will start in early August and should wrap up in about two months.

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Cam.lee@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @northeastNOW_SK