Accessibility and Access Keys [0]
The City of Ottawa will be increasing the amount of treated waste it sends out to be used on farmers’ fields this year.
Ottawa council stopped the spreading of waste from the city’s sewage treatment plant onto farmers’ fields in 2001, but then allowed the practice again in 2004. Last year, 8.4 per cent of the biosolids were given to farmers to be used as fertilizer, most of them outside the city’s boundaries.
Yesterday, the city’s planning and environment committee was told that the amount sent to farms would roughly double this year. Edwards resident Jim Poushinsky argued the city should simply be dumping the biosolids at its landfill at Trail Road, but the city doesn’t want to use up landfill space with 40,000 tonnes of treated waste each year.
The city’s waste managers are also looking into other ways to get rid of the material, including using it as fuel for energy production.