Proponents of a botanical garden in Westview need the Powell River Regional District to take a number of steps before they can move forward on their initiative.
Board members of Powell River Botanic Garden Society made a presentation at the regional district’s committee-of-the-whole meeting on February 21. Frances Ladret, former regional district administrator and a director of the society, provided an overview of the concept, which is to transform the former waste transfer site into a botanical garden.
Between 1972 and the early 1990s, the approximately 10-hectare site was used for the operation of a pit-burner, which took household, commercial and paper mill waste. One of the ideas for cleaning up the site is to use plants to remove contaminants. Dr. Val Schaefer, from the University of Victoria, made a presentation about that possibility last November. One of Schaefer’s students has prepared a case study for the site.
As well, the society has had an initial positive response from the City of Powell River, Ladret said, which owns the property. The city wants to see a business plan, but, Ladret said, the group needs data on the site before it can undertake that. “We’re not asking you today to say the site will be a botanic garden. What we want to do is talk about the next step in dealing with that site, which is the closure plan.”
Diana Wood, president of the society, gave an overview of her vision and Lauritz Chambers, another society director, presented information about the physical aspects of the site, which has two major piles of bottom ash. According to a 1996 sampling report, the piles are estimated to have 21,000 cubic metres and 7,200 cubic metres of ash, for a total of about 28,000 cubic metres. Chambers said that translates into roughly 56,000 tonnes of material that is contaminated.
“It’s not considered special waste,” he said. “In other words, the type of contamination that it has could have been disposed of in the same form as our regular garbage. It could have been taken to Rabanco at the same kind of cost. The problem is today, there are different standards for the metals.”
Cadmium, which wasn’t even recognized then, is now causing a lot of problems with people, Chambers said. If it has to be labeled as special waste, and as special waste if it had to be transported to Rabanco, it could cost as much as $1,000 a tonne, for a total estimate of $56 million, Chambers said. “You can see the elephant in the room is rather large.”
The regional district is awaiting approval from the provincial government of its solid waste management plan. The document calls for closure plans of old landfill sites, with the one at Powell River airport first and the former waste transfer site second.
Chambers said that, hopefully, the first step that will be taken in the closure plan will be an analysis sampling, which involves core sampling of the ash piles in many different places, a process that could take up to a year.
Ladret requested that the regional district move forward on testing the site as soon as possible. She also asked if the regional district could switch the timing of the closure plans or do both at the same time. As well, she requested that the regional district select a consultant who would agree to use the University of Victoria resource and the group would also like to have someone from the society involved in the closure plan process.
Colin Palmer, board chair and Electoral Area C director, pointed out the regional district can’t start to do anything until the ministry of environment approves its solid waste management plan. Once the plan is approved, there is money in the budget for a closure plan for the airport landfill, he added. It might be possible to do two closure plans, Palmer said, because there is money available in the waste management reserve fund.
Palmer also said, given the costs, a botanic garden looks attractive. “I think your idea to come up with what I would call an environmental alternative is pretty good, compared with digging it all up and moving it or even capping it,” he said.
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