Action coming on compost

Amid ongoing complaints and the receipt of a new legal letter, one electoral area director is urging the Columbia Shuswap Regional District board to take action on issues related to the Spa Hills Compost facility.

At the Nov. 21 CSRD board meeting, directors reviewed a letter from lawyer Angela McCue that was drafted on behalf of residents in the Silver Creek area affected by Spa Hills Compost.

The letter asks the regional district to implement a new composting bylaw to regulate compost facilities within the regional district, but the CSRD staff report on the letter recommended against creating such a bylaw.

Residents have previously attended CSRD board meetings to present their issues with the composting facility, even going as far as threatening the regional district with a lawsuit if nothing is done.

'Pleading' for action

Director Dean Trumbley, who represents Electoral Area D which includes Silver Creek, said something needs to be done.

“I understand that this business is offering a service that is much needed, but there's a larger issue here of an entire community being negatively affected,” Trumbley said.

“It's affecting people not being able to sell properties, it's affecting people's ability to be able to use their places in the summertime. We have a provincial report that's come out showing they are out of compliance in a lot of areas.

“What I'm requesting of staff, as well as the board, is we should be pursuing to do everything we possibly can to rectify this situation.”

Trumbley said he has been receiving emails about the situation every week with residents pleading for action.

“It's not something that's just one or two people saying it smells a little bit bad,” he added. “I get emails on a weekly basis on this, people pleading, people wanting to move but can’t sell properties.

“As the area director, I'm leading to the fact that if there's something that we can do, developing a bylaw that enables us to be able to enforce, then that's something we need to look at pursuing to rectify the situation for people in the area.”

Director Kevin Flynn noted there was in item on their agenda for an in-camera meeting related to the issue, and suggested a discussion could wait until they could discuss the matter fully during that session.

Trumbley said he planned to put forward a motion to have staff create a bylaw that would regulate composting facilities within the CSRD, biut he agreed to wait until a more complete discussion of the issue could be held in camera.

He added he was happy the issue was able to be discussed in a public meeting, even in a limited capacity.

“I'm actually really happy this has been brought up in a public venue, because as of right now, everything has kind of been done in in-camera sessions,” he said.

“It's sending a very bad statement to the community that we're just not dealing with it, whereas now they can finally see that, yes, we are trying to pursue a solution to this.”

The board agreed to put aside further discussion of the issue until after the in-camera meeting.