ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Date: December 17, 1997

Author/Local: P. Henderson/

946-8049

CC File No. 3757

TO:	Vancouver City Council
FROM:	General Manager of Engineering Services
SUBJECT:	Vancouver Landfill Improvements

RECOMMENDATION

A.THAT a Civil Engineer's position be created in the Landfill Operations Branch. The estimated cost of the position is $65,000 of which the City's portion will be approximately $17,000. The additional cost will be offset through reduced landfill operating costs.

B.THAT office renovations at a net cost of $122,000 be undertaken to renovate and expand the existing Landfill Administration area. Funding to be provided with a loan from the Solid Waste Capital Reserve to be repaid using funds previously approved by Council for temporary office space.

C.THAT an excavator, bulldozer, tarping machine and two additional roll-off bins be purchased at a net initial cost of $850,000 to be funded from the Truck Plant Account. This cost will be offset through reduced Landfill operating costs.

D.THAT a study be conducted, in cooperation with the Soil Science Department at the University of British Columbia and the Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust, to investigate the feasibility of direct land application of ground yard waste to agricultural fields in Delta. The cost of the study is estimated at $50,000. Twenty five-thousand dollars to be funded from the Solid Waste Capital Reserve, and $25,000 to be funded from the offsetting savings in the composting facility operating budget.

COUNCIL POLICY

Expenditures from reserves require Council authorization.

On February 4, 1994, Council resolved that departments and boards be instructed that any recommendations for increased staff or enhanced programs be accompanied by recommendations for matching cost decreases or related revenue increases in non tax revenue, subject to Council discretion.

On May 3, 1994, Council agreed to support the Regional Solid Waste Management Plan, which includes requirements to upgrade the Vancouver Landfill.

SUMMARY

This report proposes the addition of a Civil Engineer's position to the Landfill Operations Branch, office renovations, and the procurement of additional equipment, including a bulldozer, an excavator, and a tarping machine. The report also proposes a study into the feasibility of grinding up yard waste and applying it directly to fields rather than composting it.

The report proposes a total initial expenditure of $1,022,000. The proposed improvements will result in a decrease in the Landfill Operating Budget of approximately $135,000 per year. This is in addition to a $450,000 decrease in 1997 due to improvements already implemented by the Landfill's management team.

BACKGROUND

On January 9, 1997, Council approved changes to the Solid Waste operations at the Vancouver Landfill. The changes involved reducing operating hours at Vancouver Landfill, and the creation of a new branch, the Landfill Operations Branch. The report also approved the reclassifying of two positions associated with the Landfill. The Landfill Foreman's position and a Civil Engineer position in Solid Waste Management were eliminated. A Landfill Manager's position and a Landfill Superintendent's position were created.

The report indicated that staff would be reporting back to Council in six months to provide an evaluation of the changes and determine whether additional front-line staff is required for the facility.

DISCUSSION

The changes approved by Council have now been in place approximately six months. Overall, the changes have been positive. Locating management on-site at the Landfill has improved the management of the facility. New procedures and practices have been put in place that have reduced Landfill operating costs. Operations related savings over 1996 are expected to exceed $500,000 on a total budget of approximately $8,000,000.

A summary of Operating Budget savings is shown on Table 1. The savings include approximately $300,000 in reduced cover material and road construction material costs, $100,000 due to the reduced operating hours, and $100,000 in reduced equipment and labour costs.

In addition to the changes approved in January 1997, we have developed a list of additional improvements for Council's consideration.

Landfill Civil Engineer

The Landfill Manager is responsible for the overall operation of the Landfill including management of staff, and technical issues such as environmental compliance, landfill gas management, and waste assessment.

An additional engineer is required to assist the Manager on work such as the expansion of the landfill gas collection system, landfill gas utilization, road construction design, refuse cell design, composting facility management, and environmental monitoring and reporting. This work involves millions of dollars in expenditures as well as responsibility for managing extensive environmental liability.

The cost of the engineer (approximately $65,000 per year) will be recouped through savings in improved system design and operation. More details regarding the position are included in Appendix A.

Office Renovations

In the Council Report, approved January 9, 1997, a budget was approved for temporary office space. Approved expenditures include $31,400 in capital expenditures, and $15,000per year for the rental of a portable office.

As an alternative to renting portable office space, we have been investigating the feasibility of improving the existing office space. The proposed improvements include upgrading the heating and ventilation system, removing a storage and mechanical room to provide additional space, and adding data/telephone points to improve electronic communications. Other improvements include computer equipment and furniture for the proposed Civil Engineer.

The total estimated cost of the improvements is $169,000. The approved budget is $46,400. The difference of $122,000 could be funded from the Solid Waste Capital Reserve and repaid using the annual portable office rental budget approved in January 1997. There would, therefore, be no net impact on the City's Operating Budget.

Additional Equipment Needs

The annual equipment budget for the Vancouver Landfill is in excess of $3,000,000. The majority of the Landfill's equipment is owned and operated by the City of Vancouver, but some of the equipment is rented.

Replacing equipment that is rented full-time with City-owned equipment will provide improved dependability and ensure that the equipment is suitable for the work. In the long run, the annual cost of operating the equipment will be less as profit to the owner is not built into the City rental cost.

Composting Facility Excavator: The composting facility has been fully operational for over a year. The facility is processing in excess of 20,000 tonnes per year of yard and garden waste, and producing a valuable end product. The cost of processing the yard and garden waste is approximately $50 per tonne which is the approximate design cost from the initial Council Report, approved December 1992.

The facility has been renting an excavator to load yard and garden waste into the grinding plant, and to carry out other tasks at the facility, such as mixing piles of compost.

For the year ending May 16, 1997, rental excavators were used a total of 2100 operating hours at a cost of $152,705. The total annual cost of owning an excavator would beapproximately equal to the cost of renting. A city-owned excavator would be more suited for the work than a rental unit, as well as more dependable, resulting in a more efficient operation. The estimated cost of purchasing a suitable excavator is $200,000, which can be be funded from the Truck Plant Account.

Low Ground Pressure (LGP) Bulldozer: Since 1995, we have been using soil as cover material at the Landfill rather than sand, which was used previously. We use the material because the cost of processing soil is cheaper than the cost of processing sand. Also, if we do not use the soil as cover material, the City must pay to dispose of it elsewhere.

The total savings to the City, as a result of using the soil as cover material, are approximately $300,000 per year, including the savings on cover and the savings resulting from the avoided disposal cost of the soil. These savings are in addition to the savings described in Table 1.

During the wet winter months, soil must be pushed using a LGP bulldozer. We have historically rented a LGP D6 Cat. For the year ending May 16, we rented the bulldozer a total of 1540 hours for a total cost of $173,688.

We propose purchasing a LGP bulldozer. The machine would be used for daily cover and for road construction on the Landfill. It is anticipated that either a D6 or D7 sized machine is required. Purchasing a bulldozer will ensure that we have a machine that meets our needs, and also ensure that we have a dependable machine.

The estimated cost of the bulldozer is $525,000, and can be funded from the Truck Plant Account. City rental costs for the bulldozer will continue to be funded from the Operating Budget, and will not affect the cost of refuse disposal or the City's Operating Budget.

Tarping Machine: Since 1994, we have been operating a compactor overnight at the Landfill on a daily basis. The annual cost of operating the compactor, including labour, is approximately $300,000. Operating a compactor is an alternative to covering the face with soil each night, which is more expensive and uses up landfill space. A benefit of running a compactor overnight is that some compaction is achieved, but once the refuse has been traversed two to three times, the additional compaction is minimal.

We propose using a mechanical tarping system to cover the garbage rather than running a compactor overnight.

Tarps would be placed on the Landfill at the end of the working day and removed the following morning. It is expected that placement and removal of the tarps will require approximately one hour per day.

The only company that we have found that has a mechanical tarping system is Tarpomatic in Ohio. The estimated cost of purchasing the system is approximately $100,000, and the operating cost will be minimal. We estimate an annual savings of $200,000 will be achieved through reduced equipment and labour costs.

Funding for the purchase of the tarping machine is available from the Truck Plant Account.

Roll-Off Containers: Roll-off containers are used at the Landfill to haul garbage from the residential drop-off area to the main Landfill working area. A roll-off container is also used at the composting area for disposal of garbage. There are currently no reserve containers, so whenever a container is taken out of service for repairs, a disposal bay must be closed to the public. Additionally, repairs must be responded to immediately to allow timely re-opening of the bay, therefore, they cannot be done in the most cost efficient way.

We propose buying two additional bins to provide spare capacity for the system. The cost of the bins is estimated at $25,000. The total annual cost of the bin fleet is expected to increase only marginally as repairs to the bins can be done more efficiently, and total maintenance requirements should remain constant. Additionally, the annual capital cost of each bin should be reduced as each bin's life will be extended due to reduced use. Funding for the purchase of the bins is available from the Truck Plant Account.

Land Application of Ground Yard Waste Study

In 1992, the City of Vancouver funded a study conducted by the University of British Columbia, Soil Science Department, investigating the feasibility of applying leaves and leaf compost to agricultural soils in Delta. In general, the study showed that leaf compost provided additional organic material to the soil improving soil structure.

A second study investigating the land application of ground yard waste to fields in Delta is now contemplated. The goal of the study would be to develop a system for spreadingground-up yard waste directly onto fields rather than completing the entire composting process. Directly applying some yard waste to fields will allow the City to reduce yard waste composting costs by avoiding several processing steps. The City would also be able to expand processing capacity without expanding the composting facility area.

The study would be conducted in cooperation with the University of British Columbia Soil Science Department and the Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust, a nonprofit charitable organization working to improve farmland and wildlife habitat in Delta.

The estimated cost of the study is $50,000. Twenty-five thousand dollars will be saved in composting facility operating costs and $25,000 can be funded from the Solid Waste Capital Reserve. Once a full-scale program is in place, we anticipate that operating budget savings will be achieved.

Summary of Financial Impacts

This report details significant expenditures, but because of offsetting savings, there will be no net increase in operating expenditures. A summary of expenditures and the impact on the Operating Budget is provided in Table 1.

Table 1 shows that changes resulting from the improvements approved by Council on January 9, 1997, will result in a reduction of approximately $450,000 in Landfill operating costs ($118,000 reduction in the City's Operating Budget). The additional changes proposed in this report will result in a further reduction of $135,000 in Landfill operating costs ($35,000 reduction in the City's Operating Budget).

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Table 1: Vancouver Landfill: Improvements
Item	Initial Cost	Increase (Decrease) in Landfill Operating Budget	Source of Funds	Increase (Decrease)in City Operating Budget
Items Resulting from the City Engineers' January 9, 1997 Report
Manager and Superintendent		$25,000	Op.Bud.	$6,500
Truck and Phones	$40,000	$6,500	SWCR,Op.Bud.	$2,000
Temporary Office	$10,000	$15,000	SWCR,Op.Bud.	$4,000
Computers, Furniture and Advert.	$20,000		SWCR	$0
Reduced Staff and Equip. Costs Due to Hours Change		(100,000)	Op.Bud.	(26,000)
Reduced Cover Costs		(200,000)	Op.Bud.	(52,000)
Reduced Road Construction Costs		(100,000)	Op.Bud.	(26,000)
Reduced Staff and Equipment Costs		(100,000)	Op. Bud.	(26,000)
Total	$70,000	(453,500)		(117,500)
Proposed Improvements
Civil Engineer		$65,000	Op. Bud.	$17,000
Office Renovations	$122,000	$0	SWCR	$0
Excavator	$200,000	$0	Plant Acc.	$0
Bulldozer	$525,000	$0	Plant Acc.	$0
Tarping Machine	$100,000	(200,000)	Plant Acc, Op.Bud.	(52,000)
Two Roll-Off Bins	$25,000	$0	Plant Acc.	$0
Land Application of Yard Waste Study	$50,000	$0	SWCR,Composting Facility Budget	$0
Total	$1,022,000	(135,000)		(35,000)
Notes: SWCR = Solid Waste Capital Reserve Op. Bud. = Landfill Operating Budget City Operating Budget portion of Landfill Operating Budget costs equals 26% for 1996

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Appendix A: Justification for Proposed Civil Engineer Position

Project Descriptions

Table A1 provides a list of projects that the proposed Landfill Engineer would undertake from March 1998 to March 2000. Following March 2000, some of the projects such as environmental compliance monitoring would continue on. Additional work such as final cover construction, leachate treatment and landfill settlement monitoring will start following March 2000.

Table A1: Landfill Engineer Project Description
Project	Start	Stop	Expected Portion of Time	Estimated Project Cost
Landfill Gas System Construction Project Management	March 1998	September 1999	20%	$3,000,000 to $5,000,000
Landfill Road Design	March 1998	September 1998	20%	$1,000,000/yr
Landfill Gas Utilization	October 1998	March 2000	20%	$1,000,000/yr
Environmental Compliance Monitoring	March 1998	March 2000	20%	Liability Issue
Landfill Cell Design	March 1998	September 1998	20%
Composting Facility Management	October 1998	March 2000	20%	$1,000,000/yr
Demolition Cell Construction	March 1998	March 2000	20%	$1,000,000/yr

Cost Recovery

The annual cost of a civil engineer is approximately $65,000 including all benefits. The cost of the engineer will be recovered with cost savings through improved construction design. The annual cost of road construction materials alone is more than $700,000. Improvements in road design are expected to save $50,000 to $100,000 annually, fully recovering the cost of the engineer.

Although it is difficult to calculate savings resulting from work such as increased environmental monitoring and improved composting facility management, an additional engineer at the Landfill will help ensure compliance with Provincial Regulations, and help minimize the City’s exposure to environmental liability.

Future Growth

The changes made at the Landfill in January 1997 involved the reallocation of existing staff. An organization chart follows. The chart shows the current Landfill Operations Branch Structure as well as the changes proposed in this report. Although no additional positions have been identified for the short term, unforseen circumstances such as regulation changes or Council initiatives may result in additional staffing.

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(c) 1997 City of Vancouver