It’s not the first time a B.C. facility that processes waste from household compost buckets has been flagged in a case involving environmental damage.
A compost facility fined almost $120,000 for polluting waterways that drain into the Fraser River has a contract to accept green bin waste from thousands of Abbotsford homes.
Pacific Coast Renewables, formerly Net Zero Waste Abbotsford, recently received four penalties totalling $119,695 for failing to comply with B.C. pollution laws over several months in 2021, according to a penalty assessment posted by the Ministry of Environment.
The company has a contract with the City of Abbotsford to accept compostable material from its curbside collection program, as well as yard waste from residents, according to the city.
It’s not the first time a B.C. facility that processes waste from household compost buckets has been flagged in a case involving environmental damage.
Neighbours who spoke to Postmedia blamed municipalities for failing to ensure companies making a profit from green waste aren’t polluting the environment as they rush to divert organic material from landfills.
The City of Abbotsford said it expects Pacific Coast Renewables to provide composting services “in full compliance with all applicable federal, provincial and municipal enactments and regulations.” While the provincial environment ministry regulates compliance, the company will also need to provide the city with its plans to correct issues.
Postmedia reached out to Pacific Coast Renewables and associated company EverGen Infrastructure, but did not receive a response by deadline. EverGen is involved in renewable natural gas projects, including several compost facilities and a manure digester in the Fraser Valley that provides energy to FortisBC.
At the Pacific Coast Renewables facility, the company turns food, unprocessed wood, yard waste and meat carcasses into compost. But, according to the penalty assessment, it failed to properly clean up effluent, which was sometimes discharged into ditches that drained into the Matsqui Slough and Fraser River, as discovered during several inspections.
Testing in 2021 revealed unsafe levels of contaminants such as biochemical oxygen, chloride, E. coli, fecal coliform and phosphorus. The exceeded levels were not “isolated or marginal,” according to the penalty assessment.
At its highest amount, E. coli was found to be 119,900 per cent over the allowable limit, while fecal coliform was 129,900 per cent over the limit.
In many cases, contaminants were found to be more than double the allowable limits, with potential for “adverse effects on aquatic life, including stickleback fish and benthic invertebrates.”
The penalty assessment recognized that “such substantial and frequent non-compliance compromises the ministry’s capacity to enforce meaningful protections for the natural environment, and it emphasizes the necessity of strict adherence to these limits to uphold … the broader regulatory regimen.”
The penalty amount was increased to account for the economic benefit gained through the avoided costs of dealing with the effluent for each day between Jan. 5, 2021 and Jan. 20, 2022.
While B.C. laws lay out stiff penalties for those caught polluting or accepting material on farmland without approval from the ALC, officials first seek voluntary compliance through a series of escalating actions that can take years to achieve.
With Postmedia files by Tiffany Crawford