BC Supreme Court to rule Monday on Chilliwack hazardous waste facility rezoning
BC Local News
The BC Supreme Court is expected to hand down a ruling Monday in the lawsuit over the City of Chilliwack's rezoning bylaw to allow for a toxic waste recycling facility near the Fraser River.
A coalition of First Nations, environmental, community and recreational fishing organizations argued there were flaws in the public consultation process city hall undertook that led up to the rezoning a year ago.
Ontario-based Aevitas Inc. asked council to rezone a property on Cannor Road in the Cattermole Lands from heavy industrial to special industrial to allow for the plant that, each month, will recycle among other things 5,000 litres of transformer oil containing PCBs and 500,000 lamps containing mercury.
The rezoning was passed unanimously after only a couple people spoke at the hearing. After the decision, public interest was sparked and residents called for a new consultation process.
The coalition, made up of more than 20 organizations, filed the lawsuit, acting on an opinion by West Coast Environmental Law (WCEL) that suggested there were flaws in the public consultation process. WCEL lawyer Andrew Gage said the city's advertisement for the public hearing was too vague.
“It is striking that the Notice makes no mention of hazardous waste, toxins or any other term that might flag . . . that the facility is not handling newspapers, bottles, cans or other non-hazardous materials," said Andrew Gage of West Coast Environmental Law.
All along the groups opposed to the plant have emphasized it is not the facility itself, but the location—between 100 and 200 metres away from the Fraser River—that is the concern.
"This is just not the location," B.C. Federation of Drift Fishers president Rod Clapton said at a press conference on the sandbars of the Fraser River last December.
"For gosh sakes, not on the banks of the Fraser River," added Joe Foy, national campaign director for the Wilderness Committee.
Grand Chief Clarence Pennier of the Sto:lo Tribal Council (STC) expressed his disappointment that First Nations were not consulted in any way about the project.
Chilliwack Mayor Sharon Gaetz has repeatedly pointed out that the city followed standard procedure required by the Local Government Act with regard to notification for a public hearing.
If the court agrees with the petition, city hall could simply restart the rezoning process and host another public hearing.
Photo: Fraser River near Chilliwack during low water in the winter. This is the heart of the gravel reach of the Fraser and is some of the most productive (and threatened) salmon and sturgeon habitat around. Dru! via Flickr.
