The City of Merritt is purchasing the Sunshine Valley Good Earth Company biosolids composting facility on Airport Road and will take over the operations of the site beginning November 1.

The facility’s assets, including its equipment and biosolids inventory were purchased for $300,000 from current owners John and Kate Anderson.

Interim chief administrative officer Shawn Boven said it was inevitable that the city would eventually assume control over this operation as it began as a pilot project.

“That’s always been the intent,” Boven said.

He said the initial five-year contract the Andersons had was extended because at the time the city wasn’t ready to purchase the compost site and begin operating it.

There was no intent this time to try extend the agreement between the city and the Good Earth Company again.

Boven said the city intends to carry on operations as usual at the compost site and maintain the current staffing. Currently the composting site has one employee.

The city will also continue to use the product around town, in areas such as flower beds and for mulching.

The Andersons started the Good Earth Company in 2007 in response to then-council’s dilemma in dealing with the leftover materials from the city’s wastewater treatment process.

“We tried composting ourselves, we didn’t really have the resources, we didn’t have the capital to construct the site,” Boven said.

The Andersons were the successful bid to construct and operate a facility via a pilot project.

Class A biosolids from the City of Merritt’s wastewater treatment facility have been treated at the Good Earth Company’s state-of-the-art composting site ever since.

Boven said the city paid a monthly fee of $20,000 to have its biosolids composted at the site, and estimates it will cost them less than this amount to assume operations.

“It’s kind of a net-zero venture,” he said.

Boven said he believes the city should in fact save money by operating the facility itself, but only time will tell.

The city will continue to sell the compost, as the Andersons did.

“We need the site to process biosolids and get rid of them. To me it’s not really a business venture, but the community’s come to expect and enjoy using them and being able to purchase them,” Boven said.

“We’ll continue to make it to the same specifications as John and Kate have been manufacturing,” Boven said.

The entire process of turning Merritt’s biosolids into compost takes about a year.

Council voted in favour of executing this purchase agreement for the compost facility at a closed meeting back in June. Mayor Neil Menard was the only member of council opposed.

This resolution from the closed meeting was made public this month.