A specialized waste management company wants to move into the Yukon, says the company's business manager.

Jeff Dirk said KBL Environmental Ltd. of Yellowknife has spent considerable time and money examining the market conditions and going through the regulatory regime.

"We would not have put out that amount of capital if we did not have the intent to establish operations there,” he said in an interview this week.

A new facility built at the Whitehorse landfill would serve as a storage site and transfer station for collection, consolidation and management of special and hazardous waste from across the Yukon, he said.

The material, Dirk added, would either be shipped south or handled by local treatment facilities.

Dirk said it would essentially mirror the business KBL opened in Yellowknife six years ago with five employees, but now has a staff of 20.

The company first looked into the Yukon to determine if there were other competing interests in the same line of work, and seeing none, it looked closer at the market potential, he said.

"We did a lot of research as to what was going on and it really was the mining sector that prompted the final decision,” said Dirk, who has been working in the field of special and hazardous waste for 12 years.

"Our company was founded in 2006, and its existence really started by serving one of the active diamond mines in the Northwest Territories.”

The recommendation for approval of the proposal was issued Wednesday by the Whitehorse office of the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB), subject to a list of conditions.

The recommendation has been forwarded to the Yukon government for a decision. Under the YESAB process, the government has 30 days to accept, reject or alter the board's recommendation.

Submissions on the application from different departments of the Yukon government indicated the proposed location may be in conflict with existing mining claims.

The government also emphasized the special authorization the company would need to obtain for managing special waste, and recommended three wells be installed to monitor groundwater quality over the years.

Tourism and heritage officials also reminded the company of its obligation to report any material of archeological and heritage significance discovered or uncovered during the site preparation.

There may be remains or evidence of old cabins associated with the historic War Eagle Mine, the department pointed out.

The application indicated KBL Environmental proposes to lease and clear a treed site of approximately one hectare near the gatehouse at the Whitehorse landfill.

The plan calls for the construction a 3,000-square-foot building on a concrete pad for the storage of special or hazardous waste, while other waste products such as metal and plastics would be stored outside.

Brian Crist, the city's director of public works, said the city has met with KBL to discuss the possibility of a land lease.

Dirk said KBL would collect special waste like used motor oil and store it until there's enough to send a whole tanker load south to a refinery that cleans and recycles it into another useable oil product.

It's the same with glycol, or engine anti-freeze, he said.

Dirk said there is a market for handling Jet A and Jet B fuel used by helicopters and other aircraft because the fuel has a limited shelf life.

If, for instance, a barrel of contaminated soil were to come from one of the communities, KBL has the expertise to test it to see if it could be treated at a local aeration site or if the type of contamination required it be sent to a specialized facility, he said.

Dirk said KBL now handles waste from all over the Northwest Territories and the western part of Nunavut.

The company has also moved into the business of offering full-time waste management staff who live and work at mine sites and other industrial sites to manage the stream of special and hazardous waste, he said.

Dirk said the scope of the business plan will ultimately determine the level of staffing KBL would require to start up its Whitehorse location, but it does want to be operational next year.

For the collection of household hazardous wastes, the Yukon government tenders out the collection, storage and transportation south, with the assistance of staff from Environment Yukon.

The commercial sector is responsible for providing its own means of managing special waste, though businesses are able to and do buy into the collection and transportation contract managed by the government.

Special waste manager Bryan Levia of Environment Yukon explained that in 2011, 80 tonnes were handled through the contract at a cost of $266,000.

Of the 80 tonnes, 16 tonnes were household hazardous waste and 64 commercial, he said, adding that most, but not all of it, was sent south.