The Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD) is planning to introduce a number of upgrades to the Meade Creek Recycling Facility between Lake Cowichan and Youbou, which would make the facility more user-friendly, and is awaiting the approval of a Federal Gas Tax Strategic Fund grant before moving forward.
Lake Cowichan’s town council recently sent a letter to the CVRD in support of the proposed upgrades, which are similar to the ones implemented at the Peerless Road Recycling Facility near Ladysmith.
“We were second on that list at Meade Creek,” councillor Tim McGonigle said. “I look forward hopefully to a similar ending to that project. It’s a very user-friendly facility.”
The main upgrade proposed for the Meade Creek facility is an ash remediation plan that would see the closure of the facility’s ashfill. When a similar program was undertaken at the Peerless Road facility in March 2014, they managed to reclaim 125 tons of metal in the process. Dealing with the ash onsite rather than shipping it away saved the CVRD millions of dollars.
The upgrades are expected to create a more user-friendly experience at the Meade Creek facility by introducing a number of bins which would allow for the separation of recyclable material. This system is similar to the one in place at the Peerless Road facility. Tausees Waraich, manager of Recycling and Waste Management at the CVRD, said that additional staff would be required to run the facility following the upgrades.
A new building planned for the facility would feature a sheltered roof and include a new scale that would improve coordination between it and the scalehouse.
“We’ve applied for [the grant], but we won’t be building until we have funding,” Waraich said. “We’re expecting to know whether or not we’ll be receiving funding by October or November, and make our plans this year... It would be great to have groundbreaking take place this year, but we’re just focusing on having our plans ready for now.”