$1.4 million needed to repair Kelowna dump in wildfire aftermath

When wildfire started to rip through the Central Okanagan during the summer of 2023, staff at Kelowna, B.C.’s landfill were called into action.  However, they couldn’t do much to stop the $1.4 million in damage that today leaves the facility at 60-per cent capacity.

“On Aug.17, in the evening, city staff got a call there was a fire that jumped the lake and it was coming towards the landfill,” Scott Hoekstra, manager of Landfill and Composting Operations at the City of Kelowna, said.

“Fortis asked us to shut off the gas and biogas plant and staff came out and started working on getting areas around the landfill prepped in case the fire came towards us the next day.”

Landfill staff moved equipment to a safe spot, got the irrigation system set up, started sprinklers and hoses on some of the infrastructure and did a lot of fire preparation for the next 14 hours.

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At approximately noon the next day, the fire jumped Glenmore and ignited the landfill fire.

“(There were) about eight fires that started within about 30 seconds on the hillside,” Hoekstra said. “So staff evacuated, got ourselves to the safe spot where we could do our roll call and make sure everybody was there.”

As landfill staff retreated, Kelowna Fire Department and BC Wildfire staff took over and worked through the initial grass fires. Then city staff and contractors came in and for the next week they all worked 24 hours a day, dealing with the wildfire fight itself and some of the smouldering that was going on.

In the end, two areas were most damaged. The entire southwest corner of the site was on fire and the landfill gas system was damaged.

“We lost approximately a third of the landfill gas wellhead, some of the subheaders and all of the laterals that feed down to that area,” Hoekstra said.

There also were areas in the southern end that caught fire.

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Hoekstra said that in the face of the fire, community groups, landfill staff and city workers went above and beyond in their attempt to help.

Within a week of the fire, we were accepting garbage and had our landfill gas system back up and running at about 50 to 60 per cent and that’s currently where the operation is still at. Significant work is needed to get up to full capacity

Staff is requesting up to $1.4 million be spent on the landfill gas repairs and relocate some of that burnt debris that was on site. There’s currently an application into the province for disaster financial assistance, which will cover up to 80 per cent of the eligible costs.

The remaining amount would be covered through landfill reserves.

Even if the province didn’t pony up the funds, Hoekstra said there are adequate funds in the landfill reserve to be able to handle the expense and still allow dump staff to move forward with all of its existing capital plans in place for the next three to four years.

Council moved the item to the financial plan unanimously.