A company is proposing to dump up to 1,000 tonnes of contaminated soil a day onto Crown land near the Chehalis River, one of the Lower Mainland’s prime fish streams and home to a major federal hatchery releasing millions of juvenile fish a year.
The proposed Statlu Resources dump site would be as close as 100 metres from Boulder Creek, a tributary of the Chehalis River, which, in turn, flows into the Harrison River upstream of Highway 7 west of Harrison Hot Springs.
Statlu Resources president Earl Wilder confirmed he has encountered strong opposition, but feels his plan for the site is misunderstood.
“We have a high social conscious,” he said. “We don’t want to damage anything.”
The proposal is drawing immediate skepticism from fish advocates.
Marvin Rosenau, a former provincial biologist who now teaches in BCIT’s Fish Wildlife and Recreation program, noted that heavy rainfall in the area raises concern about contaminants finding their way into the Chehalis, which he considers a critical salmon and steelhead stream.
“At face value, it seems like a stupid place for a contaminated-site disposal location in the light of the facts that the Chehalis flows through one of B.C.’s most important southern-coastal riverine/wetland aquatic ecosystems (including the Harrison/Chehalis confluence).”
According to the latest federal hatchery statistics, a total of about 500,000 chinook, 3.4 million chum and 700,000 coho salmon were released into the Chehalis River in 2015, as well as about 2.1 million pink salmon and 56,000 steelhead in 2014, and 21,000 cutthroat trout in 2012.
Wilder said the dump site would only accept remediated soils excavated from sites such as construction and industrial properties, leaving “low-level contaminants” such as residential hydrocarbons and heavy metals, but not domestic garbage or hazardous waste. The soil would meet the standard for commercial but not residential properties, although in theory in 12 years it could be used for any purpose. Statlu has no plans to move it off the site.
Protective liners would be installed and leachate collected and piped through an on-site treatment facility before safely going back into the forest. He argued the odds of winning the lottery are better than contaminants from the soil reaching the Chehalis and negatively impacting fish.
“We can’t say there’s no chance. There is a minimal chance something could happen.”
Wilder’s application to rezone about nine hectares of Crown land to resource industrial from institutional is before the Fraser Valley Regional District. The company holds a licence of occupation for investigation and assessment of the land.
In a letter to the company, Margaret Thornton, the district’s planning and development director, raised a number of issues, including the remoteness of the site and the potential for “unapproved materials” to be dumped on the property “with little chance of detection.”
The soil dump also threatens to “change the nature of the community and potentially impact the reputation” of nearby rural areas.
The project represents “a major impact in the region and warrants a high level of scrutiny,” she added.
Wilder wants the Chehalis River site because it is near a gravel pit he opened in 2009. An estimated 25 heavy-duty trucks a day would deliver contaminated soil to the site, then leave with loads of gravel — a total of 50 trips through the community.
The soil dump is located fewer than five kilometres upriver from the federal hatchery, but much closer to the Chehalis River.
Wilder said the site is situated as close as 340 metres from the Chehalis River, although closer to 600 metres based on the natural water flow on the land.
Vivian Thomas, Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations, noted that Boulder Creek, a tributary of the Chehalis, is 100 metres away.
The province has not objected to Statlu submitting a rezoning application for the site, but has not guaranteed a tenure for the project.
Wilder said an information session in the Scowlitz Community Hall at Lake Errock did not go well. Sts'ailes First Nation chief Harvey Paul said his office continues to receive information on the project to be presented later to council and the full band membership.
Diane Gillis, a resident of Morris Valley Road since 1993, said she is not anti-development but believes "everything has its place" and that the soil dump doesn't belong in the environmentally sensitive area.
She has concerns about the impact of the dump on the area's aquifer as well as the potential for landslides due to earthquakes, Gillis said.