The Council of Canadians Victoria and Mid-Island chapters are celebrating the cancellation of a waste discharge permit that allowed a quarry upstream from Shawnigan Lake to receive and store up to 100,000 tonnes a year of contaminated soil.
Shawnigan Lake is located about 25 kilometres north of Victoria and about 70 kilometres south of Nanaimo.
The dump site put at risk the drinking water supply for 12,000 people.
The Globe and Mail now reports, “The provincial government has cancelled a waste-discharge permit for a company that runs a contaminated soil-disposal site near Shawnigan Lake, delighting community activists who have spent years fighting the project. The decision – announced Thursday by British Columbia Environment Minister Mary Polak – follows a permit suspension last month and is the latest twist for a project that galvanized a community and triggered several court proceedings.”
Among chapter activities over the past three years:
March 2014 – the Victoria chapter protested outside an Environmental Appeal Board hearing to demand that the BC Ministry of the Environment reverse its decision to grant South Island Aggregates a permit to dump toxic soil near Shawnigan Lake.
May 2015 – the Victoria chapter joined with 1,000 people at a rally at the BC Legislature in Victoria to protest the dump site.
June 2015 – the Victoria chapter participated in a blockade of the entrance to the dump site as trucks began to deliver the contaminated soil.
January 2016 – the Victoria and Mid-Island chapters were at a protest at Shawnigan Lake just prior to the beginning of the BC Supreme Court hearings.
February 2016 – the Mid-Island chapter attended a Sacred Land & Sacred Waters ceremony aimed at stopping the dump.
April 2016 – the Victoria chapter was at a protest at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt given the majority of the contaminated soil for the dump was coming from dredging at this location.
Congratulations to @SaveShawnigan, Sonia Furstenau, the chapters and to everyone who took part in this epic struggle to defend the right to water.
#SaveShawniganWater