On June 16, the CRD’s Environmental Services Committee passed a motion to request the Province to end land application of biosolids at Hartland. This motion will be submitted for approval to the full CRD Board on July 14.

This motion was a result of public pressure brought by a consortium of environmental groups known as the Peninsula Biosolids Coalition, which includes the Mount Work Coalition.

It brings full circle to an original decision by the CRD Board in 2011 to ban land disposal of biosolids anywhere in the Region. That ban continues to this day with the notable exception of the Hartland landfill.

The CRD Board agreed to an exemption for Hartland without public consultation in 2020. The CRD’s approved treatment option for the biosolids is to ship them to Lafarge cement plant in the Lower Mainland as fuel in the cement making process. However, for about six weeks of the year, the plant is closed for maintenance so the CRD Board approved land application of biosolids at Hartland during this time.

Unfortunately, the Residuals Treatment Facility located at Hartland has never functioned properly ever since treated sewage began being pumped from the treatment plant at Mcloughlin Point in December 2020. Lafarge has rejected the treated biosolids because they do not meet specifications. The biosolids, which do not meet provincial standards for spreading, have been landfilled at Hartland as a ‘ controlled substance ‘ for the past six months.

Though CRD staff have indicated that this situation is temporary, the Peninsula Biosolids Coalition has pressured the CRD to reverse its 2020 decision to spread biosolids as these biosolids can contain many hazardous substances such as heavy metals, pharmaceuticals and other contaminants of concern. CRD staff did agree to the Coalition’s request to make available monthly test results of the biosolids once the Treatment Facility is fully operating.

It is clear that a longer term plan for managing biosolids which does not require landfilling or land application is urgently required. To that end the Environmental Services Committee passed a second resolution to require that a sample of biosolids be included in the testing of a gasifier proposed by the Township of Esquimalt this summer to determine if thermal conversion of biosolids can become a viable option. The residual material is a bio char which is inert and increases carbon storage in soils.

The Mount Work Coalition and Creatively United support the two motions to end land application of biosolids and to determine if they can be safely disposed of through gasification. We encourage members to notify the CRD Board by signing the attached petition.