Compost consultation going to OT
Recognizing it has become a hotbutton issue, local politicians on Thursday voted to extend public consultation on a proposal to build a new regional composting facility near the Campbell Mountain Landfill.
Part of Sather Ranch at 1313 Greyback Rd. is being eyed for the facility by the Regional District of OkanaganSimilkameen.
Sather Ranch is in receivership, meaning its assets, including the 80-acre parcel on Greyback Road, which is part of the Agricultural Land Reserve, are in limbo right now.
But the location next to Campbell Mountain Landfill is just too good for the RDOS to pass up, so it’s planning to see if the land can be removed from the ALR before it commits to buy.
“The receiver has allowed the regional district to act as agent, make an application to the Agricultural Land Commission to have that property exempted, and then, as they get their civil (legal) issues resolved, we’ll determine if we want to carry on with our application to purchase,” chief administrative officer Bill Newell told the board at Thursday’s virtual meeting.
Newell said the application has already been filed with the ALC, but it’s not considered complete because public consultation is set to continue under the new plan approved by the board Thursday.
That campaign calls for advertising in local media, an information website and even a video outlining the project, plus accepting more feedback from the public.
The results of the campaign are expected to be presented to the board in early summer, after which directors will decide if it wants to proceed with the ALC application.
RDOS board chairwoman Karla Kozakevich, who also represents Area E (Naramata) around where the composting facility would be built, said she has already fielded “a lot” of questions from wary neighbours.
“It’s based on a lot of misinformation, some very inaccurate information,” said Kozakevich.
“We have letters from folks saying they’re against the composting facility because they don’t want an increase in odour, when in fact it will do the opposite, it will greatly reduce the amount of odour.
“So I think it’s important we do some more public consultation and get the correct facts out there and then see more feedback based on the correct information being presented to the public,” said Kozakevich.
RDOS consultants expect as much as a 70% reduction in odour from composting operations, because the outdoor piles at Campbell Mountain will be eliminated and all organic material trucked to the new facility, which will be enclosed.
But some in the area have larger concerns about removing the site from the Agricultural Land Reserve.
“It needs to be left in the Agricultural Land Reserve because that is it’s best use considering B.C. only has 5% of its total land base as agricultural land,” Jacquie Jackson, whose property abuts the northern edge of the Sather Ranch property, told The Herald in April.
As of January, the cost of building the composting facility, not including land acquisition, was estimated by RDOS staff at $17.2 million.
A regional composting facility, along with curbside pickup of organic waste, has been on the books since 2013, but the concept hit a few snags in recent years after proposed sites in Marron Valley and Summerland were shot down due to local opposition.
The RDOS says organics and food waste account for about 40% of what’s currently going into local landfills, the lives of which would be extended by diverting that material to a composting facility, which would crank out high-quality products for agricultural use.