GFL Eastern Ontario Waste Handling Facility

Location: Moose Creek, Ontario, Canada
Owner/Operator: GFL Environmental

The GFL Eastern Ontario Waste Handling Facility (EOWHF) and landfill site provides disposal capacity to over 500 municipalities across Eastern Ontario. The operations encompasses a site area of 189 hectares and includes:

• A 66 hectare landfill site
• Composting facility
• Waste transfer and processing station
• Waste water treatment facility
• Small vehicle waste drop off
• Landfill gas to energy facility
• Ontario Electronic Stewardship (OES) drop off
• Ontario Tire Stewardship (OTS) drop off
• Supporting facilities

HGC Engineering was retained by GFL Environmental, a leading North American provider of diversified environmental solutions, to update the Acoustic Assessment of the stationary sources of sound at their solid waste handling facility in Moose Creek, Ontario.

The landfill area is approved to accept solid non-hazardous municipal, industrial, commercial and institutional wastes generated within the Province of Ontario for disposal. The landfill has a permitted annual fill rate of 755,000 tonnes per year and an average daily fill rate of 2,500 tonnes per day. Additional waste quantities are accepted at the EOWHF composting facility.

The Acoustic Assessment of the facility was required in support of an application to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (“MECP”) to amend the existing Environmental Compliance Approval (Air & Noise) for the facility. The amendment was needed to address the proposed increase in flow rate to the existing landfill gas flare at the site, and the proposed installation of a second landfill gas flare.

Sound levels of the stationary sources of sound at the facility were measured on site by HGC Engineering acousticians.  Sound intensity instrumentation and methods were used for the source emission measurements.

The source sound levels, along with the geometry of the facility and the surrounding area, were used to develop a computational acoustical model, in order to prepare a detailed sound source inventory, and thereby determine the contribution of each source to the overall sound levels off-site.

The applicable sound level limits at the neighboring noise sensitive points of reception were established in accordance with MECP Publication NPC-300.  The facility-total sound levels were evaluated against the applicable limits.

The measurements and analysis indicated that the sound levels of the facility complied with the limits set out in MECP publication NPC-300, including the proposed modifications to the flares and the future installation of additional generating capacity.

Acoustical Engineering Services Included:

• An Acoustic Assessment in support of an application to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (“MECP”) to amend an existing Environmental Compliance Approval (Air & Noise) for the facility
• Measurements of stationary sources of sound at the facility using Sound intensity instrumentation and methods
• A detailed sound source inventory
• Development of a computational acoustical model