C-K to help pay to close a Middlesex dump
By Pam Wright
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Chatham-Kent is on the hook for $361,240 as part of its payment portion to close the Limerick Road Landfill in Southwest Middlesex.
The bill comes on the heels of a decision by the provincial Ministry of Conservation, Environment and Parks to close the facility, located approximately seven kilometres from Bothwell.
Council approved the spending at its Feb. 10 meeting. The money will come from reserves, as it was not forecast in the budget.
Further costs will be imposed on C-K in the future to help pay for ongoing environmental monitoring, prompting a decision by council to create a reserve to address the cost of such monitoring that will continue for at least 25 years.
When questioned by councillors Alysson Storey and Anthony Ceccacci about the lack of preparation for the funding request, C-K’s general manager of infrastructure and engineering said the municipality only learned about the costs late in 2024. According to Edward Soldo, Southwest Middlesex is the administrator in charge, which leaves C-K out of the decision-making process.
“It’s their responsibility to fulfill the environmental order,” Soldo explained, noting Southwest Middlesex will be leading the monitoring phase as well.
The 6.27-hectare landfill was commissioned by the former Mosa Township in 1968, receiving waste from Township of Mosa, Bothwell, Wardsville, and Newbury, with Zone Township signing on in 1971 after its landfill closed.
In 1992, an agreement was signed by all five communities to contribute financially to the landfill’s eventual closure. With amalgamation, Chatham-Kent inherited the agreement, which included a method for calculating each community’s financial contribution.
Chatham-Kent is responsible for 43 per cent of the monitoring costs going forward.
According to a staff report, curbside pickup and recycling began in Bothwell village in 2005. In 2018, the province ordered Limerick landfill to be closed. The work was tendered in 2024 and is expected to be completed later this year.
In his comments, Ceccacci raised the spectre of C-K’s communities – including Bothwell-Zone – seeking to de-amalgamate from Chatham-Kent.
Ceccacci asked Steve Brown, C-K’s director of budget and performance services, what the landfill closure would have cost Bothwell-Zone residents if the Limerick landfill closure was area-rated.
“If we were to area-rate this cost to the former community of Zone and Bothwell, including both the one-time capital and the ongoing monitoring, it would be about $1,200 per property,” Brown said, adding that if every C-K resident pays it is about $28.
“So, there is significant cost savings to this when it goes through the entire community,” Ceccacci said.
