Why isn’t the Capital Regional District just as concerned about the toxic soil dump permit for the Stebbins Road gravel pit as the Shawnigan Lake residents are? They are fighting a battle all alone, yet our Sooke Lake watershed is equally threatened.
Will the CRD please publicly answer this question?
It doesn’t take an engineer to figure out where the contaminated water will run to. On your computer open Google Earth and put your cursor on the dump site. The reading is 340 metres above sea level.
Now put your cursor on Shawnigan Lake. It’s 132 metres. On Sooke Lake it’s 185 metres. It’s downhill all the way to both lakes and it’s only three miles to each of them!
Is the water runoff above safe levels now? Perhaps. But what happens in 50 years with several million tons of toxic waste in the gravel pit, and we are hit with an unusual winter of heavy rain? The containment berms were built by the lowest bidder and Bingo. In a single season, irreversible damage can be done to our drinking water. Drinking water, the single most valuable natural resource known to man and we will risk it for the price of a permit.
So in 50 years the damage is done, the company has long since changed its name and you can’t sue an environment minister who is dead.
It has long since mystified me why governments advocate moving contaminated soil from one place on the earth to another. The soil is still contaminated and it still affects the environment in the same manner. However, in the case of South Island Aggregate gravel pit, the damage caused by the pollution will be several orders of magnitude greater than where the soil came from.
Corporations that pollute land or buy land cheap that is polluted should not be allowed to move the soil. They must treat it where it is located. Treatment with introduced micro-organisms is very successful, but takes years.
So be it. It is time greed takes a back seat to the unbelievable challenges that we are saddling our grandchildren with.
Ted Cameron
Colwood