Questions surround huge waste pile as company files for bankruptcy

PENTICTON – What is going to happen to a huge collection of construction waste piling up on the Penticton Indian Band?

It’s a question no one is commenting on after the company who piled it there recently filed for bankruptcy.

Court documents indicate Penticton area garbage contractor Appleton Waste Services filed for bankruptcy in Vernon court on April 11.

The company has been dumping building waste and other material on reserve land just west of the Okanagan River channel for several years.

Penticton Indian Band Communications Coordinator Dawn Russell said in an email today, April 18, the land containing the waste pile is locatee land, meaning it's under the care and control of an individual band member.

An email response from the locatee to INFOnews.ca said they had no comment to make at this time regarding what effect Appleton’s bankruptcy proceedings will have on the waste pile.

The landowners also declined to comment as to whether Appleton had provided any assurances of responsibility for the waste.

A man who identified himself as a worker with Appleton Waste Services said yesterday in a phone conversation the company wasn’t going bankrupt, but was ‘restructuring.’

A further call to Appleton Waste Services was not returned by deadline.

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