Residents win big in fight to save water
Residents of Shawnigan Lake were celebrating a “big win” Monday in their ongoing battle against a contaminated soil landfill they say endangers their watershed, a day before a rally planned for World Water Day.
It’s the latest development in a years-long effort by Shawnigan Lake community members and the politicians who have supported them as they try to stop a resource company dumping contaminated soil into a quarry upstream from the Vancouver Island community’s domestic water source.
In a decision Monday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice B.D. MacKenzie ruled that a contaminated soil landfill was not a permitted use on the property in the Cowichan Valley, and ordered an injunction stopping the respondents from using the property as a landfill.
The petition was filed by the Cowichan Valley Regional District in October 2013, about two months after the provincial environment ministry issued a permit for the companies to discharge refuse from “a contaminated soil treatment facility and a landfill facility located at the quarry site.”
The CVRD’s legal challenge, heard over several days last November and December, names Cobble Hill Holdings, the owner of the property, and South Island Aggregates, the company operating the quarry.
Meanwhile, the Shawnigan Lake Residents Association is planning a rally for Tuesday. The event was organized weeks ago, before the residents knew the Supreme Court decision would come Monday. The rally, set to coincide with the UN’s World Water Day, starts at noon outside the Langley constituency office of Environment Minister Mary Polak.
Shawnigan Lake area director Sonia Furstenau said Monday she was “absolutely elated with the decision,” adding: “This is a great example of what can happen when a community really stands up together and decides to protect its future.”
At Tuesday’s rally she expected to see “the Shawnigan community connecting with communities around the province who are also facing water challenges.”
“People have become more aware, not only of the water issues here, but of water issues more broadly,” said Furstenau, the CVRD’s elected representative for the 8,000 residents in and around Shawnigan Lake.
Andrew Weaver, leader of the B.C. Green Party, issued a statement Monday saying: “I want to recognize the hard work of Shawnigan Lake residents in coming together as a community and standing up for their rights in the face of government inaction. This is a vindication of their concerns, and wouldn’t have been possible without their tireless effort.”
Cobble Hill Holdings is considering an appeal of the decision.
The head of the Shawnigan Residents Association, which last year launched their own Supreme Court challenge against the landfill’s permit, welcomed Monday’s decision as “a big win.”
SRA president Calvin Cook said: “We’re buoyed by this announcement today, but we are going to continue with our work to protect our water, not just for now, but for the future.”
B.C. NDP leader John Horgan, whose former riding included the area around Shawnigan Lake, described Monday’s decision as “very welcome news.”
In a statement, Horgan said: “Hopefully this Supreme Court decision will put a halt to this nonsense, and the Clark government will assure residents that this sort of thing won’t happen again.”