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obscurantist
wonk, snark, pedant
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 739
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 Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 3:46 am Post subject: BC local govt. orders company to stop logging in watershed |
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For the first time in British Columbia, perhaps in Canada, logging has been ordered stopped in a watershed because it poses a potential "health hazard" to downstream communities.
In an unusual move, the Sunshine Coast Regional District used the Health Act to protect its drinking water by ordering Western Forest Products Inc. to stop logging on steep slopes in the Chapman Creek watershed. | Quote: | Although logging, the mainstay of the provincial economy for more than a century, has been halted for environmental reasons in the past, it hasn't been labelled by any government as hazardous to human health before. Patricia Chew, executive director of West Coast Environmental Law, hailed the order as a precedent-setting decision that could spill over into other B.C. communities where there are concerns about the impact of logging on the quality of drinking water. ...
The order states the regional district "has every reason to believe that a health hazard ... exists due to the forestry activities undertaken by WFP in the watershed."
It orders Western Forest Products to "cease all forestry activities" in the watershed where slopes have a steepness of 60 per cent or more.
It also orders the company to stop building roads, to stop all activities within 30 metres of any watercourse, and to retain a hydrologist to work under the direction of the regional medical health officer to monitor water quality.
The order came into effect Sunday. ...
For the past few years there has been a running battle between Western Forest Products and local residents, and this summer the company got an injunction to stop a logging road blockade.
Those opposed to logging recently took their complaints to the regional district, arguing that drinking water was at risk, and triggering a review. ... |
There's also a story on this topic in the Vancouver Sun:
The Greater Vancouver and Capital regional districts have legal protection against logging in their watersheds in the form of provincial guarantees. But many smaller towns across B.C. have no such protection. | Quote: | ...under the Local Government Act, which governs the powers of most B.C. municipal and regional governments, the district did not have the power to order Western Forest Products to stop, said district chair Ed Steeves.
However, sitting as a local board of health, the directors of the regional government could -- and did -- use the powers granted to them under the Health Act to defend the water supply.... ...
Other municipalities are sitting up and taking notice of the order, said Richard Taylor, executive director of the Union of B.C. Municipalities.
With more than 200 boil-water advisories in effect across B.C., many of them because of silt, water purity is a hot issue for the smaller towns, he said. "That certainly caught my eye."
In Port Alberni, civic officials and activists have contested the logging rights of Timberwest on steep slopes near Beaver Creek, where some 2,000 people have faced boil-water orders due to high silt content.
But so far the district has only complained to the provincial government, said district director Patty Edwards.
"We've felt pretty powerless," Edwards said. "If we could have this jurisdiction, that would be great."
Regional District of Central Kootenay director Andrew Shadrack said if a citizen made a health complaint, he would ask his district to follow the Sunshine Coast's example. And in Nanaimo, district chair Joe Stanhope said his staff was looking into how to use the ruling to protect their watershed. ...
Forestry companies have not yet challenged the decision in court but such a challenge would lead to a significant legal battle over the control of some 200 watersheds....
A 2006 study cited in the Sunshine Coast order identified the hazards to the water supply from logging on steep slopes as "high."
"In particular, forestry activities on steep, unstable terrain with soils which are sensitive to disturbance contribute to drainage alteration, increased turbidity and sediment and changes in levels of organic carbons and pH," says the ruling, quoting the study.
Some of the forestry company's studies were contradictory and the company employed "insufficient fieldwork" to do them, says the study. ... |
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obscurantist
wonk, snark, pedant
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 739
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| Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:01 am Post subject: |
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Update: Western Forest Products has gone to court to quash the district's order, and is asking for a stay on it, which would render the order moot as it means logging will occur in the watershed in the meantime.
The Sunshine Coast Regional District overstepped its bounds when it ordered a halt to logging in its watershed because it was deemed to be a health hazard, Western Forest Products lawyers said Tuesday. | Quote: | WFP asked the B.C. Supreme Court to quash the order, and to put a stay on it while the case is heard so logging can proceed in the meantime. ...
...WFP representative Duncan Kerr said the district's order was at loggerheads with provincial rules that allow logging to proceed, leaving the company with no place to go. ...
It's now a race against time for WFP, which said its licence requires it to log its quota in the Chapman Creek watershed before April 2008.
WFP said some $2 million worth of timber is at stake. The company has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars building roads in the area, and faces steep fines from the province if it does not log the timber it promised, said documents it filed with the court Tuesday.
Once snow starts to fall in the watershed, likely in October, WFP will have to suspend logging for the rest of the winter, company lawyer Gwendoline Allison said. But if the company wins a stay of the regional district's order, logging could proceed while the case is heard.
District lawyer Chris Murdy said that would allow the watershed slopes to be harvested despite the order.
"If the order is stayed, the appeal will be rendered moot, and the trees will still be cut," he said. ...
Forestry analyst Kevin Mason said the company could be entitled to compensation if it can't log the watershed.
However, it was not clear whether or how much the provincial government or the regional district would have to pay Western Forest Products for the logs it could have harvested. ... |
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Searosia
The Rain King
Joined: 09 Jul 2007
Posts: 917
Location: Back in Calgary!
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| Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 4:37 pm Post subject: |
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If you see further updates, please keep posting obscurantist... I'd like to see how this fully plays out.
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Now is not the time for you Liberal fools, its time for a witch hunt. - Bloc Party |
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