Council gives recycling company a year to shut down or relocate
Sylvie Paillard
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After two and a half years of debate, delays and dissatisfaction, Carney's Organic Recycling will be shut down. The District of Squamish council's one-year timeline for shut down caused frustration, however, with nearby residents and the district now potentially faces tremendous cost and environmental burdens in dealing with tons of human waste formerly handled by Carney's.
"It's going to be a big issue for us and a big issue for the community," said Mayor Ian Sutherland.
Council supported part of a staff recommendation on Tuesday (Aug. 1), ordering the suspension of Carney's composting operation on Queen's Way by June 30, 2007 due to odours that contravene the district's rezoning bylaw for the facility.
Coun. Corinne Lonsdale said she would like to see the operation cease within six months, and wondered about the perception of Carney's receiving special treatment.
"I feel sick about this, Mr. Carney is a great corporate citizen," said Lonsdale. "I honestly think we need to uphold the bylaw now. One year is unreasonable. We have developments going into the area, some who may not even know about the issues here."
Neighbouring business owner April Turner agreed. Ever since the strong odours began emanating from the facility when it opened in February 2004, Turner has spearheaded the campaign to have Carney's shut down.
"I do not enjoy or relish pointing a finger at neighbours due to the District of Squamish's failure to enforce the bylaw," said Turner. "It's a great thing [Carney's is] doing, but just a bad location. To ask patience for another year is a lot."
Carney's owner Owen Carney has presented his case to council in the past, but declined to attend this week's hearing, according to spokesperson John French. French said that with council's decision, Carney may choose to shut down the operation entirely or relocate it to a site near the landfill in the Cheekye Fan.
"Carney's Organic Recycling is now reviewing all of its potential options for the future," said French, "ranging from the facility being sold, the facility being closed outright and pretty much anything between those two."
Coun. Raj Kahlon said during the council meeting that Carney has already spent $7.5 million to build the facility and $750,000 to try to fix the odour problems.
Council's decision may mean a renewed dilemma for the district if Carney's chooses to shut down entirely instead of relocating.
Under provincial legislation, municipalities are required to treat human waste until it contains zero live organisms. Squamish can't treat the waste since it doesn't have an appropriate facility.
The district will also have options to review if Carney's chooses to discontinue the organic recycling operation, said Mayor Ian Sutherland.
"Hopefully Carney's finds a way to stay open under the new guideline," he said. "We've been approached from time to time from people with other technologies and other ideas. We did a couple of test pilots a couple of years ago with people from UBC. So there are things to look at."
In the event Carney's chooses to shut down, the sludge would go back to the landfill, said Sutherland. Provincial legislation would allow the municipality a certain timeline to get a proper facility up and running, but eventually the district would face hefty fines.
Council had previously requested district staff organize a committee to assess the odours, but that was never achieved.
Coun. Greg Gardner asked project engineer Rod Pleasance - sitting in for community development director Mick Gottardi - why staff ignored council's direction to form a committee.
"It was quite obvious there were still odours," said Pleasance, "so we decided to skip that step."
Gardner chastised staff for the independent decision, saying: "I don't think it's up to staff to disregard direction from council."
Council passed a motion to order Carney's Organic Recycling cease its operation by June 30, 2007, and continue to reduce the odours until that time, with Lonsdale opposed.
