Keele Valley Landfill Site -

Amendment to Technical Services Agreement

 The Works and Utilities Committee recommends the adoption of the following report (April 7, 1998) from the Interim Functional Lead for Solid Waste Management:

 Purpose:

 To seek authority to extend the agreement between the City of Toronto and Conestoga Rovers & Associates Limited (CRA) for general consulting services, landfill gas consulting services including gas utilization and ambient air monitoring and leachate disposal, moisture recirculation, final cover, progressive rehabilitation and site closure requirements at the Keele Valley Landfill Site (KVLS).

 Funding Sources, Financial Implications and Impact Statement:

 The 1998-2002 Capital Works Program estimates a total budget of $16,477,000.00 for ongoing development of the KVLS under Project C-SW165. Budget approval is still outstanding.

 Recommendations:

 It is recommended that:

 (1)authority be granted to increase the approved level of expenditure for technical services for Conestoga Rovers & Associates Limited by an amount of $246,000.00 from $2,571,000.00 to $2,817,000.00 after the Municipal Goods and Services Tax (GST) Rebate for general consulting services, landfill gas consulting services including gas utilization and ambient air monitoring, leachate disposal, moisture recirculation, final cover, progressive rehabilitation and site closure requirements at the Keele Valley Landfill Site within funding limits previously approved;

 (2)the term of the agreement be extended to December 31, 1999; and

 (3)the appropriate officials be authorized to amend the existing agreement between the City of Toronto and Conestoga Rovers & Associates Limited to give effect thereto.

 Council Reference/Background/History:

 On October 25, 1995, Council approved Clause No. 7 of Report No. 16 of The Environment and Public Space Committee extending the agreement between Metropolitan Corporation and CRA to April 1, 1998, and raising the limit on the approved expenditure by $881,000.00 to $2,571,000.00 after the GST rebate.

 Comments and/or Discussion and/or Justification:

 CRA was the previous owner/operator's (Superior Crawford Ltd./Waste Management Inc.) consultant during the environmental hearings leading up to the certification of the KVLS and Avondale North borrow pit. In August 1983, the Metropolitan Corporation originally retained CRA to perform certain professional services for and in connection with the development and management of the Keele Valley Landfill Site under Provisional Certificate of Approval No. A230610.

 The conditions imposed in the Provisional Certificate of Approval for the Keele Valley Landfill Site require Toronto to report to the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) on the manner in which the landfill is constructed, operated and maintained. CRA has been directly involved with obtaining the approvals necessary to report to the MOE in order to continue operating this landfill.

 CRA was also our prime consultant for application with the MOE on the proposed expansion of the site. They have been involved with this site and the detailed development and design of the various systems, controls and operations with Metro and the previous owners since the 1970s, and their staff have over 30 collective years of work experience directly related to the site. CRA is currently in the process of resolving and finalizing with ourselves and the MOE a number of approvals including those involving moisture recirculation, leachate disposal, landfill gas control and utilization, air monitoring and progressive rehabilitation and final cover. We believe that in order to maintain continuity of the engineering design, approval and implementation of this work, we should continue to retain CRA. A new consultant would have to become completely familiar with the ongoing projects as well as the history of the site and be interjected into and agree with the ongoing dialogue presently under way with the MOE, which we believe would result in additional costs to the City, especially in view of significant ongoing design and operations developments at the site.

 Due to the large size and prominence of the KVLS, the MOE has paid particularly close attention to the site's design and operation and environmental impact and control. It is the only active site in Ontario requiring ongoing approvals by the MOE. When we were originally considering consultants to provide engineering services for the KVLS, the MOE encouraged us to hire our present consultants, including CRA, because of their knowledge of the site, and the history of the site prior to our purchase. Furthermore, the MOE recognizes the existing consultants at Keele Valley as pre-eminent in their field, and they have verbally encouraged Metro to retain the same consultants. The MOE, who have similar hiring practices with respect to engaging consultants as the City, have maintained the same consulting team at the KVLS when they rehired their own third party consultant (Trow Ltd.), for all the above reasons and defended their choice before the Management Board of Cabinet, the most senior approving authority in the provincial government. We concur with the MOE's position regarding consultants at the KVLS.

 Some additional reasons for continuing to retain CRA include the following:

 (1)the feasibility and/or necessity of the proposed expansion has yet to be determined; there are significant cost benefits, notwithstanding the minimization of the City=s staff time to educate other consultants to maintain CRA's continuity between the information contained in the expansion documents and ongoing work at the KVLS;

 (2)CRA's continued involvement will allow us to maintain the established efficiency of inspections, documentation and reporting to avoid unnecessary duplication of work, which would increase consulting charges to the City and require a significant amount of our staff time being spent in assisting and educating a new consultant;

 (3)it will provide consistency of design objective; and

 (4)CRA has provided cost-effective project management and design services to the City; the MOE and our staff are confident and satisfied with CRA's work to date at the KVLS.

 We feel that it would be in the City of Toronto's best interests to utilize CRA and ensure continuity through this time period because of the sensitivity of the issues and cost implications of effectively meeting the requirements of the Certificate of Approval, and the installation and operations of these systems will be ongoing.

 All major stakeholders (in addition to the City of Toronto) involved in the approval process and development of the KVLS to date (since 1983) have remained the same. These stakeholders include key decision-makers at the MOE and the MOE's prime consultant, community members of the Keele Valley Landfill Site Liaison Committee, representatives of the City of Vaughan, and others, including CRA. The MOE approval and review process for significant engineered systems and/or site operations of the KVLS is ongoing. There are unresolved issues at the KVLS and others that remain to be resolved through ongoing discussions with the MOE. By retaining the same consultant, potential disputes at any future hearings regarding responsibility between two consultants who have worked on the same project is avoided.

 CRA has continuously provided excellent quality and cost-effective project management and design services to the City of Toronto.

 An extension of CRA's agreement to December 31, 1999, would ensure that the City of Toronto as proponent is provided the necessary continuity required to complete the approval process and development of the KVLS in a cost-effective manner. We estimate the cost for CRA=s services for this period at $246,000.00 after the GST rebate.

 Conclusions:

 A consultant is required for general consulting services, landfill gas consulting services including gas utilization and ambient air monitoring, leachate disposal, moisture recirculation, final cover, progressive rehabilitation and site closure at the KVLS. Extending the agreement between the City of Toronto and CRA for these services has many advantages. It is therefore recommended that the agreement between the City of Toronto and CRA for consulting services at the KVLS be extended to December 31, 1999, and that authority be granted to increase the approved level of expenditure for these consulting services by $246,000.00 after the GST rebate.

 Contact Name:

 Lou Ciardullo, P. Eng., Engineer - Keele Valley Landfill Site

Solid Waste Management Division

Phone: (905) 832-0682 ext. 235; Fax: (905) 832-4944

E-mail: Lou_Ciardullo@metrodesk.metrotor.on.ca