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The last time city officials contemplated the type of organic waste treatment centres that are needed on Montreal Island and the places to put them was a decade ago.

And their thought process went like this: for the sake of “geographic equity,” they said, they would build four treatment plants — one in the east, one in the west, one in the north and one in the south. A fifth facility, also to be built in the east end of Montreal, would serve as a pretreatment centre.

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The city’s plan has changed little since then, apart from switching the site of the future west-end plant and moving the future north-end plant further east, even though technological advances have led to new waste treatment processes and innovative uses for the byproducts they create.

The only thing that has changed substantially in Montreal’s long-awaited project to build two composting plants, two biomethanation plants and the pretreatment centre is the price: an announced cost of $237.5 million in 2013 has risen to $589 million today.