Biosolids protest comes to Kamloops
KAMLOOPS – Protestors shut down Victoria Street in downtown Kamloops today as they rallied against a biosolids operation near Merritt.
Members of Friends of the Nicola Valley picked the location for the protest, June 19, because Health Minister Terry Lake and MLA Jackie Tegart were meeting at the Thompson-Nicola Regional District office nearby.
The protestors are concerned the biosolids — treated human waste — being dumped near their homes pose a risk to the environment and their health. While Interior Health has said sewage sludge is unlikely to cause illness, the protesters disagree.
Georgia Clement with the Friends of Nicola Valley led the protest with a megaphone.
“We are here opposing the land application of biosolids in the Nicola Valley,” she says.
Her group is asking the Health Minister to consider alternative locations for the biosolid dumping and asked repeatedly for an audience with Lake.
“I think it shows (the province) is ignoring the moratorium for First Nations,” Clement says.
Lower Nicola Indian Band Chief Aaron Sam wants the minister to know the province’s actions are not acceptable, adding his community is reliant on healthy water and soil, and biosolids put that in jeopardy.
“They apply the biosolids to the land and they haven’t consulted first nations at all," he says.
Lake came to meet with protesters where he told Clement the government would conduct a scientific review.
She says the science is already available to the government and the public.
“(I asked) whether or not he would promise to do something else with land application of biosolids and he indicated he would.” Clement says, noting this was her first meeting the minister. “I do appreciate that he came over on his own accord and met with us on the street.”
Sam says it’s a provincial matter.
“It’s important to get our message outside of Merritt,” he says.
Sam wants the minister to know while today's demonstration would come to end, the opposition wasn’t going anywhere. He hopes to negotiate with the province to come to a solution everyone can accept.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Dana Reynolds at dreynolds@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
— This story was updated 1:56 p.m., June 19, 2015 to incude an exchange between Clements and Lake.
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3 responses
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It’s time to stop spreading pathogens and lies for the benefit of corrupt corporations and governments. http://alzheimerdisease.tv/alzheimers-disease-spreading-faster-via-biosolids-reclaimed-water/ Reckless sewage dumps and biosolids are bioterrorism.
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You need to get the description of this mess consistent. “Bio-solids”, “waste dumping”, “sewage sludge”. The term “bio-solids” was made up to get by in from the public and farmers. IT IS A CON PLAN AND SIMPLE!Fact remains bio-solids are really hazardous toxic processed (ANAROBIS DIGESTION) sewage sludge which is cleaned from industrial, hospital, storm and household waste. Not ONE person in the sewage con can tell you what is actually being dumped on the suckers that take it. That includes but is not limited to your so called Honorable Leona Aglukkaq. It looks to me like Canada’s environmental agency could not regulate a hot dog stand. Don’t feel bad, the US is in the same boat. The state of the environment is steered by special interest and the multi-billion dollar sewage lobby. Not to even mention the large cities trying to get rid of the mess as cheap as possible.All in all a formula for a pandemic disaster.Chief Sam, be on your guard, these sewage con artists have paid guns to end run any protest to stop this ill-conceived practice. You just witness an end run. I don’t think your Environmental Minster understands. She may understand 4 yards of the stuff in her front yard.Craig
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The BC Ministry of the Environment (MOE) Sylvis Fact Sheet misleads the First Nations and other citizens who are fully justified to oppose the land application of biosolids.To claim that biosolids is not pathogenic human waste is false; to claim that biosolids is nothing but organic matter and nutrients is false; to claim that toxic chemicalsdo not cause injury to the environment is false. Toclaim that the current Canadianregulations protect human health, agriculture, and the environment is false.Even the title of theBC regulations: Organic Matter Recycling Regulations (OMRR) is misleading: spreading sludge on land is not recycling; instead it transfers thousands of man-made chemicals from urban industrialized centers to relatively pristine rural soils.Especially misleading is MOE’s claim that there is a large body of science that supports this practice.Nowhere in the Fact Sheet References are listed any peer reviewed scientific studies that indicate that this practice is safe.Instead theReferences include trade associations and links to the US EPA which have long covered up the problems of land application and maligned and sued scientists and citizens who oppose the practice. We salute the courageous activists in Nicola Valley!For some of the problems that have been documented to using this pollutant-rich waste on land see. http://www.biosolidsfacts.organd http://www.sludgenews.org.
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