After being turned away by the City of Weyburn, Hazco Environmental Services will set up a non-hazardous industrial/oilfield waste site in the RM of Lomond, just west of Colgate.

Following a highly-publicized attempt to locate a waste cell in Weyburn's landfill, Hazco began a search in the Weyburn area for a suitable site, and that site appears to have been found south of the city, about five miles west of Highway 35, on a quarter section owned by Lomond councillor Janet Ledingham.

"We went to the Sask Water Authority and got a database on the water wells drilled in the area. We searched through those, looking for a site with a really good clay base," said Hazco president John Thompson.

On the site in question, the company did a number of geotechnical tests and have found it is a good site, he said. More tests, including soil testing and permeability testing, will be done along with a formal application to Saskatchewan Environment.

"It doesn't really have any neighbours. It's an ideal site. It's close to our customers, and the neighbours there are used to the oil business; they understand the industry," said Thompson.

Ledingham, a councillor with the RM of Lomond and the Liberal candidate for Weyburn-Big Muddy, is a cow-calf producer in the area, and owns the quarter section which abuts a PFRA pasture to the west. She said she's the nearest neighbour to this site, living about two miles away.

She had initially approached Hazco on behalf of the RM of Lomond after attending a public meeting held by the City of Weyburn to discuss their proposal to locate in the city landfill. While many city residents opposed the company's proposal, the RM invited the company to visit the RM and look around for a possible site.

"I had invited them to come so council could understand what their business was. They tested a number of sites locally and in the RM of Weyburn, and happened to choose my land," said Ledingham.

In addition to checking land sites in the RM of Weyburn, the company was also offered a site by the Town of Stoughton, but this was rejected as unsuitable for the company's needs.

Following the city's public meeting, the city set up an ad hoc committee to study the concerns raised about Hazco's proposal, after which city council voted not to allow them to use the proposed location at the landfill but an alternate one. The company rejected the alternate site, which was on the south side of the landfill, as it did not have a sufficiently thick layer of clay like their first choice of location did.

"Ideally they needed a site closer to Weyburn; however, this site is four or five miles from Highway 35, ARC Resources has a gas plant just north of there, and the roads are well-maintained and well-gravelled. Most of all, they are looking for the right geotechnical conditions," said Ledingham.

She said the RM of Lomond will benefit from Hazco's business in terms of tax revenue, plus they will have a road maintenance agreement in place. The facility will also help job-wise, as independent truckers will likely be called upon to help local oil companies haul their non-hazardous to the dump site. Besides the gas plant nearby, the site is also near EnCana's oilfield operations in the Goodwater area.

"Everybody benefits. The more you have, the more there is for infrastructure and road upkeep. We do sit in a good area of the province, and it all works together well," said Ledingham.

Thompson estimates it will take six to 12 months before the company will be able to have something in place, depending on the approval process with Saskatchewan Environment. As a part of that process, the company will hold a public information meeting, likely in early September. They will spend the summer months drawing up engineering plans in order to be ready for the public meeting.

The proposed site will house non-hazardous oilfield and industrial waste, similar to facilities located at Medicine Hat, Alta., and Virden, Man.

According to company information, the company will institute a stringent testing and documentation system to ensure the waste that is brought in is non-hazardous. Much of the waste is usually contaminated soil, along with drilling mud and other non-hazardous byproducts of the oil industry. Hazco,
and its subsidiary company WasteWorks, have locations throughout B.C., Alberta and Manitoba.