Litter that ended up on a residential property near Golden's landfill last fall has put the Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) on the hook for another grand, the B.C. government has shared.
It's déjà vu for the regional government, which says it's trapped in an "impossible situation" where it can't clean up stray plastic waste from the residence in a timely fashion due to provincial law and the neighbour's preferences.
The CSRD owed $1,050 to the Ministry of Environment and Parks this spring, according to an administrative penalty determination published May 13 by the provincial government, after the neighbour reported for the second year in row that loose plastic from the Golden landfill was carried by the wind onto their lawn.
The ministry had been inspecting the landfill site Nov. 20, 2024, to verify compliance with B.C.'s Environmental Management Act. Its subsequent inspection report this last Jan. 30 found the CSRD "out of compliance" when "litter from the Landfill was observed offsite on neighbouring properties."
The CSRD "must ensure that the Facility does not cause a nuisance with regards to litter," compliance and enforcement lead Kelly Mills wrote in her determination, adding that the regional government was first notified of the administrative penalty March 18.
The provincial government classifies the severity of this penalty as "minor," and took 20 per cent ($200) off the original $1,000 fine because the CSRD "made significant efforts during the inspection period to mitigate the spread of on- and off-site litter and to decrease the number of birds and deer accessing the Facility's waste," the determination reported.
"The improvements we made were acknowledged by the province," Ben Van Nostrand, CSRD general manager of environmental and facility services, told Black Press Media.
However, the penalty ultimately increased by 25 per cent ($250) to $1,050 on grounds that the CSRD was penalized a year earlier for the same reason.
According to Mills' report, the regional government was fined $934 in December 2023 "when it failed ensure that the Landfill did not cause a nuisance with regard to litter," though Van Nostrand added this came up at not just Golden's landfill, but also Revelstoke's. He declined to publicly elaborate on the Revelstoke incident.
This time, for the November 2024 incident, Mills noted that the CSRD declined the opportunity to be heard this last April and didn't submit any input.
The CSRD had until Thursday, June 12 — 30 days after the determination — to either pay or appeal the penalty. However, Van Nostrand said they've already paid the $1,050, due to the fact that the CSRD's rebuttal case was denied by the B.C. government last time it was penalized in December 2023.
The longstanding issue, Van Nostrand said, stems from the neighbour of the Golden landfill, who has repeatedly complained about loose plastic floating onto their property, but won't grant permission for CSRD staff to climb their fence without advance notice so the litter can be removed promptly.
"Sometimes you get some litter that's not addressed in a timely manner," Van Nostrand said. "It's a shame."
Though "we've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars" to mitigate any littering from this and other CSRD landfills, he continued, "there's absolutely no way" to prevent 100 per cent of loose plastic from floating out of bounds. At the same time, not being able to vault the neighbour's fence also isn't making things any easier.
"We're kind of in an impossible situation," Van Nostrand described, adding this has posed challenges for the CSRD over the course of a decade. "There's a long list of compliance issues at the Golden landfill."
He'd like the Ministry of Environment and Parks to take this "impossible situation" into consideration, and consider how the province's Local Government Act, for instance, could be amended to allow access to private residences for accountability purposes. Otherwise, without issuing 48 hours' notice and waiting two days to avoid being charged with trespassing, landfill staff must leave plastic waste to sit on the neighbour's lawn.
Despite this latest penalization undermining the CSRD's efforts to transition to more sustainable landfills, Van Nostrand is excited to spotlight the wins.
For example, Revelstoke's landfill is slated to have a bear-proof electric fence installed by the end of this year, similar to Golden and Sicamous. As the CSRD hopes to have procurement documents prepared by July, it's looking at a $350,000 project for late summer and fall.
