Letter to the editor of Powell River Peak

Editor, The Peak re: Mill receives permit, Aug. 20 2008

For several years PR Legacy (a citizens’ group) and many citizens of Powell River have opposed the expansion of the Wildwood landfill by Catalyst—expansion that would leave our community with a 90 foot industrial mountain of fly ash (1.3 million tons) from their incinerator.

The Flyash Mountain will be 9 stories high, on top of a former toxic dump, in an area of seismic risk. Catalyst’s motive, of course, is to save money.

Despite a great deal of public outcry, the Ministry of the Environment has now granted Catalyst a permit to go ahead with this expansion for 20 to 40 years into the future. It’s a sad day for Powell River.

A bit of history on the toxic dump.

The Mill began dumping its toxic waste into the dump in the 50s, in 1994 it was ordered to stop and was required to cap it with blacktop. Former Mill workers report there are all kinds of nasty potions under the blacktop, but at least it was stopped, and the community heaved a sigh of relief.

Now, like a bad dream, it's back to haunt us.

Federal regulations say “no” to dumping fly ash in the ocean, and it seems it’s too toxic to use for any other purpose. The solution?—let’s pile it on Catalyst land in Wildwood, before the prevailing winds that blow over our community, above our water supply, adjacent to our highway, and within a stones throw of an elementary school and many of our residents.

Time to check out City Hall, surely in this day and age there are laws to stop this assault on our community. Not so. It turns out that Catalyst has this nifty license to pollute under a piece of legislation called Section 21, passed in the 50s. It basically says that our City Councilors cannot put in place bylaws effecting Section 21 land. One would hope our consciousness about the environment has been raised beyond 60 year old legislation.

But is the land in question Section 21? In fact, the original dumpsite was not on section 21 designated land, but on city zoned industrial land. Looking at the bylaws / regulations for industrial land, I discovered that the city had opted out of environmental protection by simply saying “refer to section 21”. In other words, giving the mill municipal license to pollute.

Not only that but most of the expansion land in question is not even zoned “industrial”, but “resource”, and that has yet to be changed. So all along City Hall has had the power to stop this. This mountain is being built on land that could and should be zoned industrial, with appropriate bylaws to protect us and our community. Why isn't it?

Wildwood is being asked to take this substance that no-one else will take, and suffer potential health hazards to improve Catalyst’s bottom line. In case you might be thinking, “oh well, if there’s toxic runoff into Powell River, at least it will be washed over the dam”, I thought this as well, before freely-moving fish and birds came to mind, and then, I observed on numerous occasions the driftwood going north up the lake and into our water intake area (back eddy?).

Creating this toxic mountain is just plain wrong. I'm appealing to you at City Hall, and to you, my fellow citizens, and yes, to you as well Catalyst, in the name of common sense and decency, let’s stop this atrocious assault on our community’s health and wellbeing.

I would like to see this as a major plank in the platform of the candidates in the upcoming election.

Hugh Cooper