Central towns fret about costs attached to superdump

Municipal leaders say they still know far too little about a massive landfill planned for central Newfoundland, including critical questions on cost.

Among the communities expected to be diverting their waste to a planned "superdump" at Norris Arm are a string of communities on Fogo Island.

Gerald McKenna, who chairs the regional council on the island, said residents fear the extra costs that may come with what the Newfoundland and Labrador government is calling a greener solution to waste management.

"We represent the people on this island that are surviving, you know, only surviving," McKenna said.

"If you got to take on the additional costs to dispose of your garbage, into what you are all ready doing right now — you just can't afford it."

Under a plan tabled earlier this year, the province hopes to shut down about 160 dumps over the next dozen years.

Municipal leaders, though, want to know what will be entailed when the Norris Arm landfill opens in 2011. More than 100 communities, many of them quite small, will be using the new regional site.

Rex Barnes, the mayor of Grand Falls-Windsor, one of the largest communities in the region, said the extra costs cannot be passed on to municipal ratepayers.

"Taxes are high enough right now. Government has to play a role," Barnes said in an interview.

Barnes said mayors want "no surprises" from the province about details of the plan, including what role recycling will play, and what municipal expectations will be.

"The minister needs to take a front-seat approach to this, needs to be front and centre and let everyone know what is happening," Barnes said.