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| Landfill Site Road off Highway 17 |
2,453 miles
May 27 – Today’s
15 miles of cycling brought me to the intersection of Highway 17 & Landfill
Site Road. I was impressed by the plain
practicality of this road name, but concerned about a landfill being so close
to something as pristine as Crystal Falls.
So I began to explore.
The names of
the roads around the community of Crystal Falls are simply descriptive &
practical. Shoreline Road roughly follows
the shoreline of the Sturgeon River.
Crystal Falls Road is the main street through the community, but does
not go to the site of the waterfall.
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| hydroelectric power station at Crystal Falls |
Instead, Hydro Dam Road leads to the hydroelectric power generation
plant where the waterfall used to be.
From 1848 to
1879, the Hudson's Bay Company operated a fur trading post called Sturgeon
River House on this river. Until the
middle of the 20th century, the river was used to transport logs to sawmills on
Lake Nipissing. Now Ontario’s rivers
seem to be filled with hydroelectric dams & power stations for the larger
cities.
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| West Nipissing dump/landfill |
But it was a
surprise to me that he administrative “municipality” of West Nipissing is full
of landfills, too. There are 7 landfill
sites located around the district, 4 recycling sites, & one household hazardous
waste facility. These all seem to be set
up to deal with the locally-generated waste.
I didn’t see any indication that this rural area is processing big city
waste.
This
landfill site is named Sturgeon Falls Landfill, even though it is closer to the
eastern side of West Nipissing. This
naming seems to be more motivated by public relations than the straightforward
local names.
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| landfill on Landfill Site Road |
In 2012, the
municipality struggled to deal with pressure on the capacity of the
landfills. Even though people were participating
in the recycling program, Waste Diversion Coordinator Jason Sullivan said that
the community needed to review rules on certain materials such as cardboard,
electronic waste, and scrap metal that were ending up in landfill sites. According to Municipal Councilor Paul Finley,
"Response from the municipality has been absolutely amazing to recycle; West
Nipissing is the best community in Ontario because they were led by our staff
initiative, education in schools and the public.”
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| approved curbside waste collection (Sudbury) |
Even so, the municipality was considering
stricter rules about recycling, higher garbage rates, & building additional
landfills. I’ve found no newer news
about their environmental problem-solving.
info: Wikipedia.com
info &
image: http://www.northbaynipissing.com/news-story/4213719-landfills-about-to-raise-political-stink/
images:
Google Images
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