The site of the former Brenda Mines could open again soon and be home to a natural gas and high-nutrient compost facility.

Glencore and Brenda Renewables have partnered to reopen the site and turn it into a facility that can process local municipal organic waste, yard waste, as well as biosolids and turn it into renewable natural gas and high-nutrient compost.

Brenda Mines was an open-pit operation until it was closed down in 1990. For the last three years, Brenda Renewables and Glencore have been working on developing the project and creating 鈥渃o-purposes鈥� for the site while bringing some benefits to the local communities.

In a presentation to council, Glencore project manager Mark Tenbrink said the system is designed so there won鈥檛 be odour, noise or liquid discharge from the site.

鈥淭he process will be a service to local municipalities taking in organic waste,鈥� he said.

鈥淲hile biosolids will be received, they鈥檙e received as an input to the composting operation. There is no direct land application of biosolids.鈥�

Tenbrink said the goal of the site is to accelerate revegetation and reclamation of the site previously disturbed by the mine.

鈥淭he site closed some time ago and we鈥檝e done a number of revegetation efforts. It鈥檚 working, but it鈥檚 quite slow,鈥� he said.

鈥淲e think this will accelerate it and that鈥檚 our primary goal, but it has other benefits and goals too.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a project that has a long life and should have benefits not just to the site, but to the community and the environment as well.鈥�

Some of those benefits include recycled energy, diversion from landfills, and renewable natural gas.

Rolfe Phillip with Brenda Renewables said at present, there鈥檚 already a lot of regional district and local government initiatives to divert waste away from landfills, and the facility will only help that.

鈥淚 know some of the biosolids that you鈥檙e producing at Westbank, right now those are being trucked to Alberta,鈥� he said.

鈥淰ery inefficient, high cost, environmentally not very sound practice to have to truck biosolids out of your region all the way to Alberta for disposal.鈥�

If all goes according to plan, the facility will start construction in 2022. Phillip said construction of the initial facility will take six months, then they will operate it for a year to get reliable results of the effects of the compost products in the plots in the area.

Phillip added that they鈥檙e hoping to have five to six permanent jobs opened at the site.

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twila.amato@blackpress.ca
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