A Powell River resident wants the City of Powell River to conduct an environmental assessment on the former Max Cameron Senior Secondary School property before approving a rezoning application.
Herb Gawley raised concerns about Squatter’s Creek landfill, located underneath the property, at a public hearing held on Thursday, November 7.
Before 1971, the municipality used portions of Squatter’s Creek, which drains approximately one third of the Westview watershed, as a landfill by forcing water to flow through culverts and dumping garbage in the creek’s gully. The creek has sections of 700 metres and 500 metres which see daylight, as well as a 750-metre closed conduit section in between that goes through the landfill site.
In 1995, the culvert under Duncan Street collapsed after a heavy rainfall. “Four samples of material were sent to Vancouver,” Gawley said. “It tested out at 95 to 97 per cent methane swamp gas.”
He played ball for over 30 years on the field located on the property, Gawley said. “On the bottom field at Max Cameron school, every time it rained, the methane gas would come out of the playing field,” he said. “Therefore, I would suggest that a complete assessment of Squatter’s Creek be done before any changing of the zone.”
School District 47 has applied to subdivide a section of the property, located at Joyce Avenue and Field Street.
The city is requiring that a portion of proposed Lot 3 be rezoned from RM3 to PK, portions of proposed Lot 4 be rezoned from PK to RM1 and from C2 to RM1. The school district intends to divest proposed lots 2 and 4 to private developers for future development of multi-family residential on Lot 2 and compact single- and two-family residential on Lot 4.
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