Update From Our President - Spring 2022
Green spaces and the natural ecosystem’s impact on climate change, gasification to reduce waste to landfill, nitrate and ammonia spills at Hartland, toxic biosolids, and stewardship:
A warm ‘Hello’ to our Members and Subscribers,
It's been a lush and glorious spring season here in the Mount Work Region. I hope our members have had the opportunity to enjoy the green spaces of this region as the foliage bursts forth and the many indigenous flowers carpet the forest floor.
As we enter mid-spring, the Mount Work Coalition sees thousands of recreational users visiting the beautiful Mount Work region each week to bike, hike, and swim. As stewards of the park, the society works hard to preserve and protect this natural ecosystem to ensure it stays pristine for future generations to enjoy.
We know that green spaces help reduce the impacts of climate change. They also keep us cool and shaded in the summer heat and provide clean lakes for swimming to cool off. We see city dwellers flock to green spaces to reduce their stress and improve their health by breathing clean air and seeking quiet from the city’s noise pollution.
To ensure we have these spaces in the future, the society continues to create public awareness on the harmful activities happening at the Hartland Landfill that impact the quality of our air, land and water in the park. Recently, we've seen concerning landfill activities that polluted the waterways in the Mount Work region. Read more on the latest breach of toxic sewage liquid that has entered the groundwater outside the dump.
Although we've recently learned that the Township of Esquimalt voted to pause its move towards gasification in their community, we are happy to hear that the CRD will be testing biosolids and construction waste for disposal in a gasification system this summer, rather than seeing this toxic material buried in the landfill.
Until the proposed adoption of this new method of disposing biosolids and waste, we are urging the CRD to stop disposing or spreading toxic biosolids at the landfill NOW and find an alternative method. Our health is worth it! Read more about gasification and biosolids below.
We welcome BC Parks new conservation efforts in protecting the Partridge Hills area. This area is temporarily closed while they work on adapting the existing trails for bikers and hikers, and closing almost half of the hundreds of trails with the view to protecting natural habitat, native plants and the many animals that live in this forest. We look forward to seeing the results of their hard work.
On behalf of the Mount Work Coalition, we hope you have an enjoyable spring and summer that includes visiting the Mount Work region.
Elaine Klimke
President
Mount Work Coalition
Support Stewardship of Your Region – Support Mount Work Coalition:
As Mount Work Coalition enters our third year as a Society, we are celebrating several successes in our efforts to engage stewardship at the community and governmental level. MWC is entirely volunteer run, but does incur expenses, such as website fees (platform and hosting), legal and insurance costs. A core group of volunteers, along with local communities have been busy over the past several months collecting returnable recyclable items. One community in our region has been exceptional in dropping off their recyclables at our drop-off centre bi-weekly, which our dedicated volunteers have been collecting and bringing to the Return-it centre.
Want to help? We invite our community of members and subscribers to become direct donors to help support our efforts towards climate accountability, the health of our region’s green spaces and encouraging more appropriate and up-to-date waste management in the Capital Regional District. Learn how to make a donation here >