(BC) Envir. Min. Suspends Permit for Leaky Landfill in S

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(BC) Environment Minister Suspends Permit for Leaky Landfill in Shawnigan Lake

[ https://thetyee.ca/News/2017/01/28/Mini ... ign=300117 ]

‘This is a huge step,’ says regional director leading opposition to site.

By Andrew Nikiforuk , January 28, TheTyee.ca

Under intense legal and citizen pressure, Environment Minister Mary Polak has suspended the permit for a controversial Shawnigan Lake contaminated soil landfill site.

The suspension takes effect immediately and continues until Cobble Hill Ltd., the owner of the facility, and South Island Resource Management Ltd., the operator of the facility, meet a variety of conditions.

“This is a huge step,” declared Sonia Furstenau, an elected director of the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD). “Minister Polak has given the company an impossible task.”

The suspension order reverses the minister’s previous reluctance to take much action on the three-year long controversy.

Last October, Polak dismissed concern about water contamination from the site as matter of optics.

“I can’t pull the permit simply because the issue is giving me a political problem,” Polak told the CBC.

The suspension directly follows a dramatic court ruling on Jan. 23 that ordered all shipments of toxic soil to stop because “false and misleading” information had been presented to the Environmental Appeal Board to support the permit.

In 2013 the board relied on a technical report on the facility’s safety that “was prepared by engineers who were not independent and who stood to profit from the continued operation of the facility,” reported Justice Robert Sewell.

“That is a circumstance that goes to the heart of the integrity of the approval process under the Environmental Management Act,” added Sewell.

Given that a blatant conflict of interest had tainted the permitting process, the judge ordered the board to review the permit.

Four days later, Polak suspended the permit for the facility “due to their failure to address both outstanding as well as past non-compliances.”

In particular, the minister found that the company had failed to produce a proper closure plan; failed to estimate the cost of the closure; failed to produce a security deposit for liabilities; and persistently exceeded water quality permits as documented by The Tyee.

The minister has now given the company 15 business days to correct these deficiencies.

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