Thing: Trash transport

>> The city's garbage-hauling operations just got a lot more complicated
by PHILIP PREVILLE

The citizens of St-Henri marked a major victory against city hall last week when the provincial government deep-sixed the proposed garbage transfer station for their neighbourhood. Meanwhile, at the Miron Quarry in the north end (the city's main landfill site for the last 32 years), an important milestone is approaching: as of next Monday, May 1, the city will no longer dump household garbage in the quarry. Which leaves the question: where the hell is this truck supposed to go?

Farewell, Miron: The truck in this photo, taken Monday, will be one of the last to drop off its load at the Miron Quarry. Every day, the city's fleet of garbage trucks make approximately 300 trips to Miron to dump their load; most trucks will make about two or three trips there per day. Over the last 32 years, Miron has swallowed over 33-million tons of Montreal garbage, about half of which (17-million tons) is exclusively household rubbish. (The other half is mostly wood, asphalt and other construction by-products, which the quarry will still accept.) There are now dozens of hectares at Miron filled with household trash, piled almost 200 feet high.

Now what? City officials had already made agreements to ship their garbage to landfills in four off-island locations, including Ste-Sophie in the Laurentians, Berthierville, and St-Nicephore. But the closest one is in Lachenaie, about an hour's drive from the city centre.

Until last week, the plan had been to drop off the trash in St-Henri, load it on to bigger trucks there, then haul it out of town. Now, obviously, that can't happen--but Miron's off limits too. Until the situation is resolved, the garbage trucks will simply have to make the drive out to Lachenaie themselves. That means extra gasoline costs for the city, lots of overtime for garbage collectors, and a small dose of nuisance for everyone. "It's entirely likely that the trucks will be collecting garbage until one o'clock in the morning," says city spokesperson Jacques Tremblay.

Final factoid: The city prefers that the Miron Quarry be called by its formal name, the St-Michel Environmental Complex. It includes a composting and recycling centre, a power plant, and a network of bicycle paths--they even offer guided tours for kids. One city official actually called it "a garbage theme park." :