Opponents of the expansion to the Waste Management landfill at Richmond, north of Napanee, say they’ll mount a serious and vigorous campaign to put a lid on the plan, just as they did with the current site.

Waste Management, meanwhile, is embarking on a series of public “open houses” to try and sell the project as environmentally friendly.

Randy Harris, manager for the Richmond Landfill, said the open houses are a component of the ongoing public awareness process mounted by Waste Management. He said representatives from the company will be at the Smiling Wilderness restaurant this Thursday, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., to answer questions and provide insight into the progress of the project.

Harris said the open house meetings are geared towards educating residents about the intricacies of the proposed site, while addressing any safety concerns that people might have.

“A lot of times people have a pre-conceived notion of landfills,” he said. “They think of the 1930s landfills, which were sort of old dumps built in old quarries. It’s much more modern and highly technical, the way it’s done today.”

News of the company’s plan to open a new landfill adjacent to the old landfill sparked a public uproar after the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario called the existing Richmond Landfill one of the worst sites in Ontario.

The new multi-purpose waste management facility, to be called the Beechwood Road Environmental Centre, will feature a new landfill, as well as a waste diversion operation.

A component of the new landfill would include the generation of up to six megawatts of electricity from captured landfill gasses and the construction of greenhouses on the property, heating units for which would be fuelled by the captured gas.

The Beechwood Road proposal is the second time in a decade that Waste Management has attempted to expand its facilities there. The proposal was previously turned down by the Ministry of the Environment.

Bitter opponents of the landfill remain firmly dug in against it. Chief R. Donald Maracle, of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, said he will remain a staunch oppoonent of the site, as will his band council.

“The Tyendinage Mohawk Council oppose any landfill site in that area,” he said. “The area is just not suitable for a landfill because of the poor soil cover and the sensitivity and vulnerability of the ground water.”

Maracle is also concerned about the site posing a threat to air quality in the area. He said no Mohawk official will be attending this week’s meeting.

“We’re not endorsing their proposal, we’re not entertaining it,” he said. “We’re going to depend on the expert advice we received from environmental scientist.”

Maracle said the site poses a health risk to hundreds of people who live nearby and use wells as their primary water source.

“It’s not acceptable to a lot of citizens who are depending on wells and who are concerned about the longterm environmental impacts,” he said.

Tyendinaga Township Reeve Margaret Walsh echoed a similar sentiment. She too will be missing from Thursday’s meeting at the Smiling Wilderness restaurant.

She said the area is vulnerable because of the fractured limestone beneath the soil there. Walsh said she is puzzled as to why the company has opted to build the landfill on a site already proven to be a bad location.

“We’re concerned because some of the leachate form the landfill goes into the water system,” she said. “We opposed the other one and managed to stop a landfill proposal in 2006. This is just the same only bigger.”

If approved, Beechwood would be built in stages and the landfill would accept 400,000 tonnes of waste a year for a period of 20 years. It would be constructed just to the north of the current landfill.

Waste Management is currently gradually decreasing operation at the Richmond Landfill, to prepare for its closure. Harris said despite those hiccups they are making progress, to win over more public support.

“They’re much more comfortable after they come out and see how we can protect the environment and the ground water,” he said.

He said information gathered from the string of community meetings will provide the framework for the stitching together the upcoming environmental assessment portion of the project.

He said information pooled from the meetings will be submitted to the Ministry of Environment next month, for its officials to review and make their ruling.

“If were successful in that portion of it, the we go into the environmental assessment for the landfill portion of this in the fall of this year,” he said. “That will carry on until the middle of next year.”

That will warrant more open house meetings, spearheaded by experts armed with valuable information for concerned citizens.

“We can show them that we wouldn’t be doing it if it couldn’t be done environmentally friendly,” he said.

Harris said he was pleased to see that the views of some the projects harshest opposers, have gradually started to soften, since the start of the meetings in March.

“By coming out to the meeting and talking to the experts, people were quite comfortable that we’ve got a very good project this time,” he said.”We’ve included a lot of diversionary infrastructure to take stuff out of the trash that can be recycled.”

Harris said the company went back to the drawing board after the 2006 environmental assessment for the site was rejected by the Ministry of Environment.

“I think we’ve got it right this time,” he said. “The last time we went through this, all we were putting in was a huge landfill without the infrastructure for diversion.”