The BC Court of Appeal has ruled against the Cowichan Valley Regional District in a case involving the Shawnigan Lake contaminated soil dumping site.
John Alexander is the lawyer for the facility owner, Cobble Hill Holdings, and he says this ruling means soil dumping can resume immediately.
Alexander says the case sets a precedent across the province that puts mining related activity purely under provincial jurisdiction, which trumps any local government land use rules.
Today's BC Court of Appeal ruling overturns a lower court decision that gave the Cowichan Valley Regional District authority to prohibit soil dumping under their local bylaws.
"The BC Court of Appeal has found that the Supreme Court was wrong and that the regional district, and indeed no local government, has the jurisdiction to interfere with mining operations."
The Shawnigan soil facility falls under the category of mining. As Alexander explains it, "depositing of soil into mines is a part of the reclamation process, which all mines in the province must do.”
The ruling allows soil dumping to resume, but trucks have already been rolling after a BC Court of Appeal judge previously stayed two injunctions imposed on Cobble Hill Holdings while they awaited the resolution of this case.
"The mining industry across the province is going to look at this decision favorably. They've probably breathed a sigh of relief that they're not going to have every different regional district government deciding on a different methodology for their mines," says Alexander. He was speaking on C-FAX 1070 with Adam Stirling.
Meantime Cowichan Valley Regional District area director Sonia Furstenau is didsappointed at the decision but says Shawnigan Lake residents remain unwavering and will not accept the risk the facility poses to their drinking water.
Furstenau says the lives of Shawnigan Lake residents remain on hold as they fight their own government to try to protect their drinking water, adding Cobble Hill Holdings has a permit from the Ministry of Environment -- and the ministry is well aware of several breaches of that permit:
"We've had a contact water breach on October 8th. We have evidence of contaminants coming into the environment in Shawnigan watershed. I would say this ministry and this government has a very serious responsibility, and I call on them to act on that responsibility as they are legislated to do under the environmental management act."
Meantime the Shawnigan Residents Association is awaiting a decision on a second court case where they raised allegations of fraud in the permitting process. Asked about a suggestion from Cobble Hill Holdings' lawyer that the CVRD could be liable for losses his client has incurred Furstenau had this to say:
"I'm not a lawyer - I'm not going to weigh in on that discusssion. But the Cowichan Valley Disrict board decided to proceed as we had the right to proceed to try to uphold our land use bylaws."
Furstenau was appearing on the Pamela McCall show on CFAX 1070.