As governments and companies struggle with the problem of where to put contaminated soil, it鈥檚 easy to shake our heads and wonder what those people of yesteryear were thinking when they dumped bad stuff onto the land and into the ocean.
But we should be looking around to make sure we aren鈥檛 foisting the consequences of similar mistakes on our grandchildren.
A plan to move contaminated sediment from the seabed at the Esquimalt Graving Dock to a landfill on Millstream Road in Highlands has alarmed residents of that West Shore community. They have reason to be nervous 鈥� they remember Millstream Meadows.
That鈥檚 a 13-hectare site that was an unregulated landfill from 1941 to 1974. The sa国际传媒 government and the Capital Regional District budgeted $10 million for cleanup work on the site after test wells showed diesel fuel in groundwater in 2007.
Environmental standards have changed considerably since material was deposited at Millstream Meadows. The landfill that will be accepting the sediment from the graving dock has been designed to handle the material safely, and will operate according to strict regulations, but you can鈥檛 blame Highlanders from being concerns. Highlands does not have a municipal water system 鈥� all residents get their water from wells, so threats to groundwater are taken seriously.
Adding to those fears are concerns about traffic 鈥� the project will mean 60 to 90 truckloads of material going up Millstream Road each day. That鈥檚 a heavy load for a normally quiet, winding road through the forest.
An application to deposit contaminated soil near Shawnigan Lake has stirred considerable opposition, not only from Cowichan Valley residents, but also from the Capital Regional District. The CRD board voted in April to support the Cowichan Valley Regional District鈥檚 request that the province deny the permit needed to discharge the waste.
Much of the contaminated soil destined for the Shawnigan Lake site comes from the Greater Victoria area, which raises the question: Should one region be required to accept contaminated soil from another? It鈥檚 the provincial government that decides, but local governments should have a say.
What do you do with tainted soil and other hazardous material? Can鈥檛 leave it where it is; nobody else wants it. And much of it is due to actions in the past. The sins of the fathers are truly being visited upon ensuing generations.
But those were largely inadvertent sins. When ship repairs began at the Esquimalt Graving Dock more than 85 years ago, materials were dumped in the ocean with the idea that they would disperse and not be a problem. The world seemed bigger then, much more capable of absorbing our waste.
Service stations would routinely spread used motor oil on gravel streets and alleys to keep the dust down. Farmers casually tossed their pesticide containers into the nearest gully, not thinking that the drops and dribbles from the containers would cause much harm.
Household and industrial waste was dumped on the landscape or hauled out to sea. That was Victoria鈥檚 method for 50 years 鈥� until 1958, garbage was barged out past Ogden Point and dumped in the water.
Landfills are better 鈥� garbage is quickly covered, supposedly sealed off from the environment by impermeable layers. But for how long? Will our grandchildren be faced with the problem of dealing with our contamination?
The answer isn鈥檛 bigger and better landfills or more places to deposit contaminated soil 鈥� we need to put less in them. We need to consider carefully every substance we dispose of.
As we ponder what to do with the results of a past generation鈥檚 mistakes, we should be increasingly mindful that we don鈥檛 leave similar messes for future generations.
