Green for Life Environmental (GFL) hosted its long-awaited public meeting Tuesday night to discuss plans for enclosing and upgrading its Enviro-Smart composting facility in East Ladner.
But the open house style format of the meeting, with no formal question and answer session, left several residents frustrated.
East Ladner residents Peggy and Foster Richardson said their expectations of the meeting were not met.
“I thought we would have a sit down and there would be a presentation and a Q&A and we would be able to draw out some information that way,” said Foster. “When I got here I saw a bunch of boards around saying what they are going to do - not what they are going to do now. We have had another summer of not being able to open our windows, have a barbecue and enjoy our homes. It’s not fair what we have gone through.”
Peggy added that several of her questions went unanswered.
“I realize the concept of this recycling is great, but not in this location,” she said. “They say in two years they will have the new building up and you won’t even know we are there, but in the meantime we’re still years later having to wake up at night and smell this and have to close the windows. It’s still frustrating.”
Metro Vancouver issued the company an air quality permit in August that stipulates the composting operation must be fully enclosed by March 1, 2020.
“Right now we feel we are following all the conditions of the air quality permit,” said GFL director Brian King. “Our design is complete and we have our building permit into the City of Delta. We are hopeful that we will have the building permit approved by the end of the month.”
King added the company continues to work with Metro Vancouver as well as Delta to achieve the best results possible.
“There are about 115 reports that we have to complete that are stipulated in the permit,” he said. “Some are as simple as how long was that pump on to more detailed things like a stack study and whether that will be permitted or not, so there is a lot of technical work that we will be doing, while we are beginning construction.”
King said once construction starts there will also be significant changes to the existing facility.
“We will be retrofitting the existing receiving and processing facilities and enclosing them. We anticipate this will take four months. Once we get the building permit back, if there is no significant changes, the transition plan will be submitted to Delta and we will share that with the community.”
Residents also expressed concerns that once the facility is fully enclosed, GFL will seek authorization to increase tonnage.
King said the current permit allows for 150,000 tones and there are no plans to seek approval to increase that.
“The facility can be expanded, but we have built the facility to accommodate what our permit allows,” he said. “There are no plans to increase. It is there and would obviously be to our advantage, but there is no set timeline. That would have to be an agreement between Metro and Delta and a full consultation process.”
Delta’s corporate service director Sean McGill was at the open house as an observer.
He told the Optimist the proposal presented is a good one.
“Staff is reviewing the building permit and what we have seen tonight and on Monday we will present a report and our recommendations (to Delta council),” said McGill.
Metro Vancouver’s Ray Robb was also on hand. He said Metro will continue to make sure all the requirements of the permit are met.
“We have a 40-odd-page permit that is full of requirements and it’s our job to make sure those requirements are complied with, so we will be out there doing our odour surveys, reviewing the company’s plans and either commenting on them or approving them,” he said. “We still get lots of complaints and frustrations and we sympathize, but will continue to monitor the odours and if they exceed what is in the permit we will take some kind of action.”
Patrick Dovigi, GFL’s founder and CEO, said he recognizes the residents’ concerns.
“I think the comments were pointed in specific directions and the company is responding to the complaints that are coming from the residents and that’s why we are taking the measures that we are in making a $25 million investment to ensure they don’t have any complaints,” he said. “That’s what the purpose of this investment is. If I didn’t believe in this I would not be investing in this project to make this better.”
