Deadline passes, waste remains on field above Cultus Lake

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Hundreds of truck loads of waste remain on a farmer’s field above Cultus Lake three weeks after the deadline for its removal has passed.

As they face a third summer living near the smelly piles of material, neighbours say they are frustrated, but undeterred in their fight to see it removed.

“It’s hard not to get discouraged,” said Darcy Henderson. “But there are good people working on this, so there’s some optimism too.”

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While B.C. has laws and penalties to prevent dumping on farmland, it can take years to see results.

Columbia Valley residents first began complaining to officials in the summer 2022 when they noticed a parade of trucks dumping waste, including plastic and drywall paper, on a farmer’s field.

It took several weeks for the farmland commission to issue a stop-work order against Abbotsford-based organic waste company Fraser Valley Renewables and property owner Bruce Vander Wyk. A remediation order followed.

“It’s absurd that it even came to this,” Henderson said a year ago. “It’s even more absurd when you realize there was a concerted outcry from the community while it was going on.”

After neighbours complained, the waste was eventually tested and identified as mids fractions, a “contaminant-laden organic matter that requires additional screening” and traced back to Surrey Biofuel, a municipal facility that accepts green bin waste from more than 150,000 Surrey homes, as well as several other Metro Vancouver municipalities.

Fraser Valley Renewables claimed it was trying to improve the soil on the field and was unaware the material wasn’t high-quality compost. They added drywall paper, some of which still had drywall attached to it, to test as a “bulking agent,” a spokesman said in a previous interview.

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As of March, 14,400 tonnes of material remained on the field, according to a B.C. Ministry of Environment report. The material was supposed to be removed by May 31.

On Friday, Agricultural Land Commission CEO Kim Grout confirmed the material has not been removed and a notice of penalty order has been issued. The Environment Ministry has also indicated it will be moving forward with a penalty.

Henderson said she’s trying to trust the process, but there should be a “simple, direct way” to stop and shut down dump sites that doesn’t take several years. She said the company removed some loads a few days before the deadline, but then stopped.

Postmedia was unable to reach a spokesman for Fraser Valley Renewables, but the company told CBC News weather conditions had prevented them from carrying out the work. They have several “strong leads” for a solution that doesn’t involve dumping it on farmland, according to CBC.

There have been several recent cases of illegal dumping on Fraser Valley farmland, including in an area east of Mission where the ALC has issued stop-work orders against the owners of 37 properties.

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As governments push rapid housing development, it creates more excavated soil and rocks. Dump sites are limited, and costly. At the same time, efforts to divert organic material from landfills has led to changes in how the region’s waste is managed. The ALC has seen an increase in the volume of material being dumped on farmland, particularly in the South Coast region.

Earlier this year, B.C. Agriculture Minister Pam Alexis said she’s working to stop illegal dumping on farmland, but it’s a complex “multi-ministry” problem. She’s asked her staff to investigate increasing penalties — something that was last done in 2019 — and to sort through some of the jurisdictional issues that make shutting down a dump site difficult.

The ALC typically takes action against property owners who accept fill, not trucking companies or those responsible for generating the material. Tracing the source of the material is complicated and outside the land commission’s mandate.

It has started warning “unsuspecting homeowners” that trucking companies are knocking on doors offering free fill.

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On Friday, a sign was posted in front of a corn field near Chilliwack advertising fill.

“We pay you, mortgage helper,” it read.

With Postmedia files

gluymes@postmedia.com

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