Calgary company sees gold in old Ogden construction dump

It may not be the most obvious choice of real estate in Calgary, but a local company wants to buy the old Ogden landfill and salvage three decades worth of construction waste from the site.

ECCO Waste Systems LP says it can recycle up to 80 per cent of the concrete, asphalt, and other material in the dump before turning around and selling part of it for redevelopment.

"It's kind of a unique project," said Alec McDougall, president of the company, which recycles demolition and construction waste and is building a new materials facility.

The company is hoping to purchase the Ogden landfill from the city for $1. It wants to mine everything from it and then sell off roughly 16 hectares when finished.

The proposal was made three years ago and the city is still considering it. If it does go ahead, it will be first project of its type in a former city-run dump in Calgary.

The dump was closed in 1994 after three decades of use and is located east of Riverbend. During its life, it took in dry waste like construction rubble, but no household garbage.

Some of the former landfill has been turned into rugby fields. ECCO Waste said it would add to that rugby playing inventory at the site as part of any deal.

McDougall said the estimated cost to the company is $140 million over 10 years, which he believes can be recouped through the eventual sale of the land and revenues from the recycling of materials.

Dave Griffiths, the manager of waste and recycling services with the city, calls the proposal intriguing, but said a number of issues have to be considered.

Even though it's proposed the city would sell the land, Griffiths said the municipality could still shoulder some of the environmental liability.

He also said new development has been encroaching closer to the area in the last two decades and the former landfill no longer sits in relative obscurity.

"If there is a way to bring lands into more productive use, we're certainly intrigued," Griffiths said.

"We just have to approach it very cautiously and we have to know really the very clear definition of defining what the terms of that are, what end uses could be used."

It all comes as a city committee on Wednesday discussed how to meet Calgary's goal of diverting 80 per cent of its waste away from landfills by 2020.

Construction and demolition garbage represents roughly 20 per cent of all waste ending up in city dumps. While ECCO Waste's proposal won't help lower that, given this trash has been there for two decades or more, it might help mitigate the long-term environmental concerns posed by landfills, according to one alderman.

"There are a number of advantages," said Ald. Druh Farrell. "For one thing, a landfill never stops giving. It creates methane gas, it creates an environmental hazard for decades, if not hundreds of years."

rcuthbertson@calgaryherald.com

( Source: www.calgaryherald.com)

Back to CRD main page

Back to Resources main page

Back to Home page