As massive amounts of contaminated material are dumped into the Howe Sound this month, some residents are questioning the role of Jane Basin, a pit used for disposal that feeds into the recently constructed Britannia Mine Water Treatment Plant."Why did they spend 30 plus million dollars building that water treatment centre if they're not going to use it?" asked resident Glenn Brown. "For the government to be sponsoring this after building that plant doesn't make sense."In late May, Matcon Excavation and Shoring began unloading 15,000 cubic metres of potentially acid generating material that had piled from the 1991 Britannia Beach floods into the ocean to make room for the highway expansion. The incident has sparked the attention of larger media outlets such as Global Television, which covered the issue on Friday (June 6). Green Peace has also taken an interest, with oceans campaigner Sarah King sending an email to members encouraging them to follow the issue and help it get national attention.Squamish Environmental Conservation Society member John Buchanan said the material belonged in Jane Basin but Ministry of Transportation spokesperson Jeff Knight denied it posed an environmental threat."The ocean option was an environmentally preferable method because the acid-generating potential is mitigated when placed under water, due to the lack of oxygen," he said.District environmental coordinator Peter Woods supported this claim, but noted the district has not taken an official position. "By not exposing it to air and rain, allowing it to be submerged to the marine environment, the acid generation doesn't occur." Woods added the submerged material might create an artificial reef for fish. "In an area where you don't have a lot of complexity, sometimes dumping at preplanned areas creates habitat complexity in the marine environment."But a geological assessment of the highway improvement project notes that the material also contains heavy metals. "The material is contaminated with heavy metals, however, they are below commercial/industrial standards but above residential standards," the report said. As the Howe Sound recovers from decades of industrial contamination, Brown said it is unacceptable to choose water disposal over Jane Basin. "Howe sound has just been absolutely abused to the enth degree for the past 30, 40, 50 years," he said. "Nothing can go in there. Nothing." MOT has put forth a number of reasons for not using Jane Basin. Knight initially suggested the route to the site was unfit for the job."The Jane Basin option would have involved having to build proper road and bridge access to handle very heavy equipment. This would have been much more time consuming and would have produced far more greenhouse gases for construction and then trucking the material," he said.The roads are more than adequate for the job, argued Brown who used to visit Jane Basin in 2004 as a driver for the decommissioning company HAZCO. He said ocean dumping is simply cheaper than the trip to Jane Basin.In a later interview, Knight pointed out the road is snowbound for upwards of six months of the year, after which it requires an annual assessment of winter damage. He also emphasized how large the job would be if done on land."To haul the material to Jane basin would have required trucking it along the highway, approximately 2500 dump truck loads, to a transfer point, where it would be reloaded ontolarger off-road hauling trucks," he said.Buchanan acknowledges the job is a large one, but said it does not justify ocean dumping.He said he would like to know if all dumping into Jane Basin would be abandoned because of the challenges of transporting it by road."This was perfect fill for that area," he said. "I'd like to know what's going on."An upcoming meeting at Britannia Hall will give him the chance to voice his concerns.On June 25, the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands is hosting an open house for the Britannia remediation project. Buchanan said he will be at the meeting, calling it's timing "ironic."Ministry of Agriculture representatives have refused to comment on MOT's decision not to use Jane Basin. The ocean dumping permit was approved by Environment Canada. The dumping into the Howe Sound is expected to continue until the end of June.
