Shawnigan Lake landfill owner to miss closure plan deadline

VICTORIA The owner of a contaminated landfill in Shawnigan Lake has told the B.C. government it can’t meet the deadline for setting up the testing and water-protection measures required as part of a closure plan that the community continues to insist is inadequate.

Cobble Hill Holdings has asked for an extension to the Oct. 31 deadline, said Environment Minister George Heyman.

“The proponent is telling us they are having trouble meeting the deadlines,” Heyman said. “We’re reviewing it to see if that’s a reasonable position.”

The contaminated soil landfill is directly uphill from the popular Shawnigan Lake, which is also the source of drinking water for about 12,000 people.

After court battles and a leak, the government revoked its operating permit in 2017.

Heyman approved a closure plan for the site earlier this year that required Cobble Hill Holdings to build “enhanced environmental monitoring,” two shallow groundwater-monitoring wells, and a host of other requirements to be completed by the deadline.

But he did not require the company to remove almost 100,000 tonnes of contaminated soil. That sparked an angry reaction from community residents worried the site — which leaked once in 2016 — could fail again and pollute Shawnigan Lake.

MLA Sonia Furstenau, who has spent years advocating cleanup of the site, said she’s been warning government for months that the company can’t be relied upon to meet its obligations.

If the company goes bankrupt, or fails to meet the deadlines, the cost of securing and monitoring the site will fall back on provincial taxpayers.

“The fact remains, however, that this is a company that has repeatedly violated conditions of its permits and ignored orders from government,” the Cowichan Valley Green MLA said in the legislature this week. “Not only that, this company has not been paying its property taxes on these two properties.

“By not enforcing the rules and continuing to grant extensions, it would appear that the message this government sends is that rules don’t matter, conditions mean nothing and deadlines are irrelevant.”

“Government’s job is to protect the public interest, not the interests of one company. In Shawnigan, we have endured the interests of a company being put ahead of the well-being and health of our community for over seven years.”

Heyman said he hopes to make a decision on whether to extend the deadline soon.