Petition to stop a planned soil dump near the Chehalis River

For those who aren’t aware, a company is looking to dump up to 1,000 tonnes of contaminated soil every day near one of the area’s prime fish streams. This would not be hazardous waste per se….but it would be soil taken from sites like former gas stations, so it would contain some hydrocarbons and some heavy metals.  Former federal Green Party candidate Arthur Green has started a change.org petition to get the Environment Ministry to shoot down the proposal.

“They found an area up at the end of Boulder Creek, and it’s about 100m from the end of the creek, which flows directly into the Chehalis River.  They’re going to remediate the site, which is going to mean taking down all the trees and putting in a liner.  Then they would take the contaminated soil and dump it into that area.”

He says this water system is home at least 4 different species of salmon, and over a million fish.  So that’s a concern, along with the increased truck traffic.

Statlu Resources Limited is the applicant. They already have a gravel pit in the area, so their plan is to truck in the soil, and pick up gravel at the same time.  They claim they will have liners to prevent any leaching, and chances that anything could go wrong are extremely low, although that hasn’t been any comfort for fish advocates and many people living in the area.  They’re asking the proponent to find a more suitable location.  Former FVRD Area C Director Wendy Bales says “if (Minister) Mary Polak used some of the same criteria that she did with the Kinder Morgan project, there is no way that this project would go through.”

The Fraser Valley Regional District is also keeping a very close eye on this, and hasn’t yet given its approval.

Statlu is presenting at a community information meeting at the Chehalis Community School Library Thursday night at 6.  It is only open to Sts’ailes band members.