CRD Citizens Take CRD Directors to Task on Hartland Landfill Expansion

By Hugh Stephens

Fifteen CRD citizens, most from the Willis Point community, appeared before the CRD Board on August 12, 2020 to provide their views on the CRD’s plans for Hartland Landfill expansion and shifting road access for dump traffic from Hartland Avenue to Willis Point Road. The Board’s agenda had two items of interest:

• Hartland Phase 1 Expansion

• Next Steps and Traffic Plan

The immediate issue before the Board was whether to accept the Phase 1 public consultation report prepared by CRD staff on expansion plans. That plan consisted of 15 strategies to reduce waste, increase recycling, improve public education and, most importantly for Willis Point residents, a final strategy euphemistically titled “enhance Hartland’s disposal capacity”.

Not surprisingly the overall strategy received wide public support. The consultation document did not reveal that “enhancement” means large scale mining and quarrying operations, with removal of aggregate by about 100 heavy trucks per day (12 per hour) over a number of years, possibly decades, to make a larger hole in the side of Mount Work.

Only now are the details of this operation beginning to leak out.

The following residents spoke to the CRD via phone link (listed in the order in which they appeared):

Nikki Macdonald, Kayla Vandermolen, Peggy Williams, Elaine Klimke, Hugh Stephens, Dianne Twamley, Daniel Kenway, Jason Hillis, Midori Hillis, Camille Halsey, Bob Cormie, Ned Jackson, Catherine Bailey, Linda McLung, and Judith Finlayson.

Interventions spoke to:

• the failure to provide transparent information during the consultations;

• the impact of heavy truck traffic on users of Willis Point Road including recreational users of the parks, Durrance Lake, cyclists, and mountain bikers;

• the lack of integrity of the traffic report commissioned by CRD staff to justify moving access from Hartland Avenue to Willis Point Road; safety on Willis Point Road;

• restricted terms of reference of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee (not allowed to comment on expansion or biosolids);

• the dangers of spreading biosolids at Hartland during the COVID-19 pandemic;

• the ecological impact and risk of increased GHG emissions from heavy traffic and quarrying;

• the need to prolong the life of Hartland through more aggressive waste reduction targets rather than digging a bigger hole;

• the hidden costs of the proposal not accounted for in CRD and municipal budgets;

• the impact on surrounding communities of trucking aggregate over an extended time frame;

• the potential impact of blasting on aquifers;

• the impact of the removal of 73 acres of forest land;

• the need to explore other options including sites closer to the centre of population growth on the West Shore; and

• the need to get more expert advice and fully research all aspects of the expansion plan before forging ahead as the CRD staff seem intent on doing.

The full proceedings and citizen interventions are available as a webcast on the CRD website:
http://crd.ca.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1760

Board votes to accept the Phase 1 consultation reports despite the obvious flaws.

Juan de Fuca Director Mike Hicks attempted to propose a motion to refuse to accept the public consultation report on the grounds that it was flawed and non-transparent. After considerable debate, during which a number of Directors expressed dissatisfaction with the current plan, the Board voted nonetheless to accept the public consultation documents with Hicks, Desjardins (Esquimalt), Isitt (Victoria), Williams (Highlands) and Ranns (Metchosin) voting against. A number of Directors argued that accepting the public consultation document did not mean that they were accepting the final plan, and that there would be further opportunities for public consultation and to review the plan for expansion prior to final adoption. In theory this is true, although CRD staff will now proceed to the next phase of their implementation plan.

What's Next?

With regard to next steps, CRD staff has been directed to do additional work on the Hartland Landfill traffic impact analysis and bring the information back to Environmental Services Committee on September 16, 2020.

A request for an additional consultation plan on Hartland traffic impacts, for the residents of Willis Point, Highlands and the Hartland area, is on hold until the revised traffic impact analysis work has been completed.

In addition, the draft CRD Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP), with comments from the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, will also be going to the September 16, 2020 Environmental Services Committee meeting. If approved by the Board, the next step will be for staff to develop a community consultation plan for the Committee and Board to consider this fall in October or November, 2020 prior to public consultation on the draft plan.

According to the CRD, upon ultimate completion of the public consultation on the SWMP a summary of the consultation results will be provided to the CRD Board prior to adopting the plan and seeking direction to submit the CRD’s SWMP to the province for Ministerial review and approval.

This timeline suggests that Willis Point residents (and all CRD residents and businesses) will have to remain alert to ensure that all efforts are deployed to slow down implementation of the current plan while other options for extension of the life of Hartland are brought forward. It will also be important to work with Directors to ensure that they are aware of the negative environmental, safety and recreational consequences of the plan that is currently under development.

Showing the 73 acres of forest to be destroyed by the CRD Hartland Landfill expansion. Note the loss of buffer zones between Hartland and the two parks. This area supports 16 listed species at risk. Forest destruction and blasting will further threaten these species and increase GHG emissions.