The town’s waste disposal service was not always a money-maker, but it certainly made a nice profit last year after accepting a big lot of contaminated soil.
West Nipissing Environmental Services (WNES) ended 2019 with an accumulated surplus of $910,577, with $219,978 coming from revenues earned that very year. The good news was shared by auditor Dan Longlade of Baker Tilly, at the virtual AGM held November 16th. Normally the AGM is held in June, but was delayed to last week because of Covid restrictions.
Longlade explained the surplus as “related to the revenue activities that took place during the year, the bulk of it funds from contaminated soil, increases in tipping fees and increase in garbage collection… You received a lot of contaminated soil during the year and received a significant amount of revenue. That does not occur every year.”
Indeed, WNES had budgeted for $30,000 in revenue for accepting contaminated soil, and received $207,795 related to soils removed from Wausauksing First Nation.
Jason Sullivan, manager of WNES, explained that the local landfill can accept contaminated soil, but assured that the soil is not hazardous. He noted that the soil is not permitted to be used as residential fill, but within the landfill setting, it not only boosts revenues but is used as fill after sitting for one year.
Landfills are allowed to accept a set amount of contaminated soil each year, though the amount varies. “So if we get a year with a lot of contaminated soil, it brings our revenues up, but we never know from one year to the next and it can’t be [accurately] budgeted, so we put it in as a low number,” Sullivan explained.
