Trashy living

>> Condos atop old garbage dumps: the next wave?
by PHILIP PREVILLE

Late last summer, residents of the Plateau's northeast corner celebrated when the Quebec government halted phase two of a condo project known as Les Habitations Chambord. They had been against the development from the start: they wanted full public consultations and space reserved for social housing, among other things, and felt completely ignored by both the city and the developer.

But while residents may have celebrated, the fact is that Quebec City intervened for entirely different reasons. Phase one of Les Habitations Chambord, located on St-Grégoire in the shadow of the city's towering, unused garbage incinerator, had been built right next to an old landfill. And phase two was scheduled to be built right on top of the old dump.

"We decided to place a moratorium on all construction projects located on landfills," explains Daniel Leblanc of Quebec's environment department. "There are public health issues and environmental issues that have to be addressed. It was time to establish some new rules."

Mindful of the controversy, the promoters of Les Habitations Chambord have since changed the development's name to Les Cours du Parc Laurier. But whatever the name, residents can probably expect phase two to eventually get the green light. When the new guidelines are released later this summer, neither Leblanc nor anyone else expects the government to ban landfill developments outright. Says one observer, blithely: "You can build on top of anything."

Prime real estate

From an urban planner's perspective, there are many virtuous reasons for building on top of landfills. In Montreal alone, there are at least 84 old landfill sites that are either lying fallow or serving as parks. They are now prime real estate--easily hooked up to water, sewage and electrical systems and located close to existing public transit routes. Many prefer to develop landfills instead of turning outlying farmlands into new suburbs.

The biggest problem with dumps, according to Leblanc, is the bio-gas located beneath the surface of old landfills. Rotting garbage produces large quantities of bio-gas, including methane. The Miron quarry produces so much of it that they collect it and burn it to generate electricity.

"The gases can make the soil unstable," says Leblanc, "so you have to take extra precautions when building the foundation." Walk through the streets between St-Hubert and Mentana north of Laurier and you'll see numerous Pisa-esque residential buildings whose foundations have settled unevenly, built atop the western section of the Chambord landfill.

The other problem with the gases is that they can seep into basements. "In many ways, those bio-gases are the same thing as auto emissions," says Leblanc. "They're noxious, they make people sick." And if you get enough methane in a basement, you can spark an explosion.

Can do!

Still, engineers have found ways around the problem. A new residential development on the Verdun waterfront next to the Arena is being built atop a landfill. (Its permits were issued before the moratorium came into effect.) The building includes a "buffer zone": the underground and first-floor parking garages are equipped with sophisticated ventilation systems. They also include a "natural venting" system: some walls don't quite touch the ground, leaving the breeze to flow freely through the garage and carry the gases outside.

Says Leblanc: "It's hard to know how dangerous an old landfill is, because you never know what kind of garbage is down there. No one ever catalogued the trash." :

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