The Regional District of Nanaimo is monitoring a Capital Regional District plan that could see sewage treatment byproducts shipped to Cassidy.
The Victoria-area regional district was shipping biosolids – nutrient-rich wastewater treatment residual material – to a Lafarge Canada Inc. cement plant in Richmond for fuel, however, unplanned cement plant shutdowns and an improperly functioning CRD facility digester in 2021 have led to biosolids being landfilled.
According to an RDN report, the CRD previously didn’t allow biosolid use on land within its boundaries, but a February amendment made an allowance only “in emergency situations.” The CRD has stated it doesn’t have any areas where biosolids could be placed currently.
The CRD is proposing biosolids be shipped to a Lafarge mine site on Nanaimo River Road as an interim measure. According to the report, “300 tonnes of Class A biosolids” would be shipped to the site annually.
The report noted biosolids would be put at the eastern section of the site and “is outside of 30-metre setback requirements from the Nanaimo River and 30 metres from any source of water for domestic purposes.” Lafarge said the location is about 230 metres from Nanaimo River, with the closest domestic groundwater well about 640 metres away, the report stated.
At a board meeting Tuesday, May 23, Lisa Grant, RDN general manager of development and emergency services, said Lafarge has owned a “quarry permit” since 1974 and is in the “reclamation” stage of operations. According to the provincial government, reclamation ensures the site is returned to “environmentally sound state.”
“We do note that the permit does have some requirements where soil importation is going to happen at this site, so we have asked for further information from both Lafarge and [the CRD] around those measures and if they are meeting those requirements,” said Grant. “From a land-use perspective, we have been seeking some legal advice, which we haven’t had to this point, about where the different measures start and stop with ministry of mines and where the [RDN] jurisdiction may come into this.”
Directors accepted the report for information and approved a motion from Area A director Jessica Stanley calling for a letter to the CRD stating the RDN has difficulty understanding why biosolids that can’t be used on CRD lands can be used in the RDN. Additionally, the CRD is encouraged to rescind previous motions prohibiting it from using biosolids within its area.
“I do take umbrage that we have a community that has deemed a product unacceptable to use within their own community and yet they feel it appropriate to put it into their neighbour’s community,” said Stanley. “I’m a mom … and I constantly say ‘Do unto others as you would do unto yourself and clean up after yourself.’ Fundamentally, that is the motivation in this motion.”
It is the RDN’s understanding that biosolid shipping has not begun, Grant said, and the RDN has requested advance notice.
Speaking at the May 9 board meeting, Sean De Pol, RDN director of water and wastewater, said RDN biosolids have numerous applications, including fertilizer on Mosaic Forest Management lands.
– files from Jake Romphf and Jane Skrypnek, Black Press Media
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karl.yu@nanaimobulletin.com
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