B.C. Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver says the soil samples he collected at a controversial landfill near Shawnigan Lake last month turned up nothing of immediate concern for residents.
Weaver and a group of volunteers collected the samples at five locations on the property, known as Lot 21, after the land reverted to the Crown due to outstanding back taxes, which have since been paid.
Lot 21 is adjacent to a quarry and contaminated soil landfill, known as Lot 23, that has been the target of protests and court action by Shawnigan residents, who fear their lake and water supply is at risk. A mining permit for Lot 21 allows the storage of soil or “clean fill” that meets residential land-use standards.
Weaver said the test results, posted on his website, show that volatile organic and total hydrocarbon content was below detectable levels in all the samples.
One sample showed zinc and copper above the soil quality guidelines of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, but Weaver said even that finding is not a cause for alarm.
“For the lay person, the tests found nothing of concern in the five samples that I tested,” he said.
The Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA said the Crown land-use policy prevented him from using automated drilling instruments on Lot 21, so he and the volunteers used shovels to dig the five samples at depths of 28, 22, 15, 14 and 0 inches.
“It’s like finding a needle in a hay stack,” he said. “So I took five grabs of sand. No needles in those five grabs of soil.
“I’m there to contribute to the discussion, to provide data and information. I had been told that there might be expectations in these areas [of the property] and there wasn’t. It’s not the end of the story, but it’s just adding to the narrative.”
Both Lot 21 and Lot 23 are associated with Cobble Hill Holdings Ltd., and its related companies. A mining permit on Lot 21 allows the storage of soil or clean fill that meets residential land-use standards and can be used to cap Lot 23.
Cobble Hill president Mike Kelly said Monday that the Ministry of Environment already did extensive sampling and testing on Lot 21 last May and found no environmental concerns.
Unlike Weaver and his “volunteer environmental scientists,” Kelly said in a statement, the ministry “used actual trained staff, employed proper sampling protocols, and compared results to the correct land-use standards.
“Andrew’s findings would have been invalid regardless of the outcome, but it is clear that some in the community only trust the Green Party Leader/Climate Scientist to collect samples. So, now that he has found nothing to suggest an environmental impact, we are hopeful that he and his followers will put this issue behind them.”
Environment Minister Mary Polak said Weaver’s test results confirm the ministry’s own findings.
“It’s not surprising that the results show what they do,” she said. “I note, and [Weaver’s] quite correct, that this doesn’t guarantee that there isn’t something further underneath the ground that shouldn’t be there. That’s possible.
“It’s one of the reasons that we’re currently talking with the Cowichan Valley Regional District about some plans that we could have for long-term monitoring to ensure that people have confidence going forward that, if anything was to start showing up, we’d be able to take action long before there was a problem.”
