Fight looms over burning of waste at dumps

With a home perched on a clear northern lake and a view of the Yukon’s mountains, Theo Stad should be breathing some of the cleanest air on Earth.
But at least once a week, his view is best appreciated from inside. That’s when his small community’s household waste—everything from kitchen refuse to electronic components—is burned at the nearby dump.

“The smell is putrid,” he said. “It’s very distinguishable. I always think, ‘They’re burning at the dump again.”’
The Yukon government is asking the territory’s environmental regulator to grant permits that would allow 19 unsupervised dumps and burn pits to operate for another three years.
Smaller communities depend on the pits for solid waste disposal.
But local environmentalists say the territory isn’t moving fast enough to come up with something better.
They want the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board, which will hear the government’s permit application Jan. 19, to force the government to phase out the pits over the next three years.
“[The dumps] are pretty bad,” said Anne Middler of the Yukon Conservation Society.
These 19 dumping grounds are the end point for construction debris, waste oil, batteries, home electronics, treated wood, appliances, dirty diapers, and other domestic waste.
Although the dumps have separate areas for material that shouldn’t be burned, the facilities are unsupervised and left open 24 hours a day.
“Anyone can dump anything there at any time and set it alight,” said Middler. “You don’t know who’s lighting it or who’s dumping what.”
In a submission to the board, the Ta’an Kwach’an First Nation said the fires sometimes smoulder for days.
“Household waste, automobiles, rotting animal carcasses, and other prohibited substances have been observed burning,” said the First Nation.
It is not just a question of bad smells. Incomplete combustion releases soot and metals as well as carcinogens, including furans and dioxins that waft into the air or seep into groundwater.
Communities near the dumps are exposed to these toxic smoke plumes when the wind is right.
Kriss Sarson of the Yukon’s Department of Community Services said the government recognizes the dumps aren’t the best solution and has launched a study of its solid-waste disposal system.
“It’s been historical practice across the North,” he noted. “We’re trying to get an understanding of what is viable for the Yukon.”
The small population in the territory—about 33,000—and vast distances make logistics difficult, he added.
Sarson acknowledged the current dumps are mostly an outgrowth of the Yukon’s frontier days and their time probably has past.
“Society’s becoming aware of what some of these actions mean and their implications,” he said. “There’s always that push to make sure we’re doing the best that we can.”