A temporary garbage transfer station will soon be operating in Belleville after the province issued a provisional certificate of approval to a Trenton-based company.

The provisional certificate, which was issued on May 10 to the Scaletta Group Ltd., gives a greenlight to a .9 hectare waste transfer site at 50 Mineral Road, just north of Highway 401. The site will be allowed to accept “solid non-hazardous municipal waste.”

The 11-page certificate outlines the terms and conditions of the site and regulates what type of waste will be allowed on the property. Under the heading “approved waste types and quantities,” the document explains only solid, non-hazardous waste limited to construction and demolition waste, household waste, municipal waste and commercial/industrial processing waste will be accepted at the site.
The site can only handle 1,000 tonnes of waste each day with the maximum amount of waste stored on the site not to exceed 1,000 tonnes at any time.

The site has been approved to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Wayne Scaletta said all the garbage arriving at the site will be handled in a warehouse-like building. No one will even see the material as it is moved from truck to truck, he said.

“This building is going to be like a warehouse,” Scaletta said. “It’ll be all enclosed and it’s going to have four doors in the front, facing north and it’ll be emptied everyday.

“All this is is a transfer station. It will be emptied everyday and it’ll be state-of-the-art with everything paved, it’ll all be fenced…. It’s something the City of Belleville can be proud of.”

Just when construction on the building will begin remains to be determined, Scaletta said. Though the company does have a certificate of approval there are issues surrounding the handling of stormwater that need to be addressed before work is started, he said.

Spencer Hutchison, manager of approvals for the City of Belleville, said while the Ministry of the Environment has issued the provisional COA, the municipality is still working out details on the site plan for the proposed transfer site.

“They submitted a site plan sometime last fall and, basically, it’s for the green, Waste Management garbage trucks,” Hutchison said. “Garbage trucks would come to this site, unload and then the garbage would be loaded on to bigger trucks that would take the waste to landfill. It’s a transfer site.”

Hutchison said the city has expressed some concerns surrounding storm water on the site. Criteria established by the ministry has been met but the city, he said, has questioned where storm water will drain.

Otherwise, he said, the city has not expressed concerns when it comes to the site plan.

The ministry’s certificate of approval does address storm water management as well as issues such as nuisance control.

The certificate specifies that “the site shall be operated and maintained such that vermin, vectors, dust, litter, odour, noise and traffic do not create a nuisance.”

As well, the owner must ensure there are no line ups of vehicles waiting to enter the site and any vehicles leaving are clean of dirt and debris.