Dear Editor,

Every decade or so, someone comes up with the bright idea that what Pontiac needs is a big garbage dump. Twice before, we’ve fended off plans; first in Bristol, then near Danford Lake and now, there’s a scheme for the Pontiac Industrial Park in Litchfield. Stop it now, because you’ll regret it later.

I’m less than delighted with the present system of waste management but the infrastructure already in place is well-controlled and has capacity for the predictable future. I hope that the surrounding population in Lachute has been compensated for the inconveniences such a site will inevitably cause but I just don’t know. The costs of collecting and trucking waste from here to there is an incentive to reduce the amount of waste we produce.

To start a new landfill where no such facility exists is to court a slow growing disaster. Waste management is a process that can be done very badly, as in the case of the Pontiac Sorting Centre’s having already stockpiled a huge mound of construction waste without proper containment or plans to deal with that waste. They laughed off a $40,000 fine as being inconsequential. Why would they be deemed good stewards, entrusted with the complex responsibilities of safely treating garbage?

The site is near the Ottawa River. That presents its own set of problems when poisonous materials leach into the stream. That’s where the ‘containment’ issue comes into play. To underline a large area, making it leakproof against the random chemical mixtures that drain to the bottom of a landfill, is a monumental feat of engineering. When does that begin, and who will oversee it?

We must assume that Hwy. 148 is intended to become a garbage corridor, for Montreal, Gatineau and other cities to send their trash. You can be sure, it’s not only Pontiac’s waste that will be deposited there.

So, people of Pontiac, please say no to a new dump. Let’s begin to reduce our production of waste. Let’s phase out the notion of buying plastic stuff we use one time, then toss. Let’s sort organic waste and recyclable materials from the ever-decreasing amount of stuff we buy, only to throw away.

Robert Wills,

Shawville and Thorne, Que.