A member of council will head to Alberta soon in order to learn more about a composting machine the town is considering buying.
The University of Alberta in Edmonton has a machine on-site which converts organic waste into compost for domestic use and the Town of Lake Cowichan wants to purchase a similar machine called the BIOvator.
“A detailed study is recommended by early summer 2015 on the siting as well as cost spending analysis,” said Coun. Tim McGonigle.
McGonigle was speaking at last Tuesday’s Public Works Committee meeting at the town hall where chief of administration Joseph Fernandez explained of the similar machine at work in the prairies.
“The University of Alberta has a composting mechanism and their data and intake is similar to ours,” said Fernandez. “It might be a good idea for a council member to go there and learn more about it as I think it would be worthwhile. We should still take this slow, not rush into it and look at all the options as it’s a big investment — about $200,000. It took us a while just to get to this stage.”
McGonigle agreed with Fernandez.
“It’s interesting that the machine is sited at a university considering the odour. If they do stockpiling I’d be interested to see. We should be looking not just at the cost for Lake Cowichan but for the surrounding areas as well.”
Mayor Ross Forrest also believes that rushing into a purchase is not an option.
“We’re still guessing at how much we’re going to get for the waste in terms of how much organics are in there,” said the mayor. “We have to go step-by-step so we don’t purchase something too big or too small.”
Superintendent Nagi Rizk stated that the town’s waste consumption varies from season to season.
“Our waste varies dramatically from the summer to winter,” said Rizk. “In the summer we have a much higher volume. We do have some numbers for our budget purposes so maybe we should look at it closer in terms of content.”
Rizk confirmed as well as the BIOvator supplied by Sierens Equipment Ltd. out of Manitoba, the town is also considering the similar “Earth Flow” model supplied by Green Mountain Technologies out of Bainbridge Island in Washington State.
Forrest also believes the “timing of the visit” to Alberta is important and a council member should visit when “the odour is at its strongest.”
A motion was passed unanimously for a council member to travel to Edmonton “when the time is right.”
