Delta composting stink clouds election
Handling of air-quality permit for facility dogs former staffer turned mayoral candidate
A mayoral candidate and former Delta staffer’s actions when dealing with a local composting operation have become a topic of hot debate among the city’s municipal election candidates.
For more than a year, East Ladner residents have been plagued by foul smells from the Enviro-Smart Organics facility, which accepts organic waste from around the region and has been the subject of about 500 odour complaints this year.
However, it wasn’t until Metro Vancouver board chair Greg Moore penned a letter in response to a query about the length of time it was taking to issue a long-awaited air-quality permit for Enviro-Smart that it exploded into a top election issue.
In that letter to Delta Mayor Lois Jackson, Moore noted that Metro Vancouver staff met with representatives from Enviro-Smart and a senior Delta staffer in March 2013 and told them that an air-quality permit was required for the facility.
“Delta staff strenuously objected to any requirement that Enviro-Smart obtain an air-quality permit, and objected to any public consultation regarding Enviro-Smart’s applications to increase allowed tonnage under the solid-waste licence,” Moore wrote.
George Harvie, who was Delta’s chief administrative officer at the time, was the only staffer in attendance. Harvie is now running for mayor with the Achieving for Delta slate.
Hours after the meeting, Ray Robb, Metro Vancouver’s manager of environmental regulatory and enforcement services, wrote an email to Metro’s general manager of legal and legislative services and others about his interactions with Harvie.
“George Harvey (sic) appeared to say that I should just grant Enviro-Smart everything they want under the solid-waste licence without any consultation and tell them that they didn’t need an air permit, or at least tell them that I would not enforce the need for an air permit,” Robb wrote.
Harvie said that he was “carrying out the direction of council” by voicing concerns about the permit process at that meeting, and any allegations that he stood in the way of permitting or a public-consultation process are without substance.
“I was speaking against and on behalf of all our industries, both in the agricultural area and the industrial area, against the proposed permitting system by Metro Vancouver,” he said. “It was flawed.”
In August, Metro Vancouver issued a five-year air-quality-management permit that requires Enviro-Smart owner GFL Environmental to enclose the facility and install high-quality pollution-control equipment.
Harvie said the meeting has only become an issue among the candidates because he is running for mayor.
“It’s just purely political. It’s opportune during the election and I guess they’re afraid that I’m doing quite well,” he said.
Jackson, who is running for a councillor post with Harvie’s slate, agreed, calling the issue “a tempest in a teapot.”
She said staff have thousands of meetings each year, and this was no different than any other meeting, so council was not specifically advised of what took place.
Jackson said Harvie went to observe the meeting, which she described as “informal,” but did not have any say in what took place because the city doesn’t have jurisdiction when it comes to solid waste licences or air quality permits.
“We have no authority,” Jackson said.