Lang Bay Waterworks Ltd. owner/manager Melanie Pantalone is concerned about plans that Western Forest Products (WFP) has for the Lang Bay watershed.
Pantalone said Lang Bay Waterworks Ltd. is the water utility that serves a community of approximately 500 residents, or 214 households, in Lang Bay in qathet Regional District. She said that as a result of WFP’s tree harvesting allowance, and its plans to apply for a refuse permit to allow for a wood waste landfill to accommodate wood waste from the Stillwater dryland sort, the utility is concerned about potential contamination entering the watershed and water source.
“The concerns are that Western Forest Products has promised updated mapping of the utility’s watershed,” said Pantalone. “They have a cut block that is supposed to be logged within our watershed. It’s right up against our water source. It was about two years ago that they promised the updated mapping of our watershed and it has still not been provided.
“Without this mapping, we cannot determine whether we should be concerned. Definitely, if it’s in our watershed, we would continue following through with environmental authorizations. We’ve submitted our concerns to Western Forest Products and cc’d the environmental authorizations office.”
Pantalone said WFP has to address all of the concerns submitted. She is hoping the watershed can be defined and the waterworks can decide if it wants to escalate further. She said her understanding is that the regulators will not give the go-ahead without the waterworks’ concerns being addressed.
She said the waterworks definitely knows the cut block is in its watershed because it butts up against the waterworks. She said the utility is located on crown land and it has a crown land lease. She said her understanding from WFP when they came to speak to the waterworks about the cut block was that they could take every tree if they wanted.
She said as for the proposed landfill, until the utility can safely say that the landfill will not affect the water supply for those 214 residences, the utility has to keep on pressuring the authorities. She said the utility was not notified of the landfill even though WFP has her contact information.
“The fact that the utility was not informed with the standard form is troubling,” said Pantalone.
She said her understanding is that the application for the landfill has not been submitted yet. She added if the process is being followed properly, all concerns should be dealt with prior to permission being granted.
Pantalone said the waterworks does not know about any particular leachates that may result from the landfill, along with the effect of having roads into the landfill area. She said Kennedy Road is where the proposed landfill would be located and the utility has customers on Kennedy Road.
“Until they [WFP] do the proper mapping, we cannot say if it will or will not affect the quantity and quality of water,” said Pantalone.
“The utility requests that Western Forest Products’ application is thoroughly investigated and scrutinized to ensure the quality of the drinking water and the health of the Lang Bay community will not be irreversibly damaged.”
At the August 16 qathet Regional District planning committee meeting, directors received a delegation from WFP representatives to outline the proposal, which has plans to dispose of an estimated 6,000 cubic metres per year of wood waste on a parcel of crown land approximately four hectares in size.
Brad McRae, government relations director for WFP, said dryland sort waste consists of materials such as bark, trimmed ends, branches and dredging. He said there is no domestic waste planned for the landfill. The material is not suitable for other uses except boiler hog fuel and landscape material, he added.
“There is no hazardous waste under Environmental Management Act definitions,” said McRae.
