Not much is duller than dirt, but in this case, the stuff is choking out productive farmland, which is used to grow food in B.C.
Structural fill, or excavation fill that’s been dug up to put in basements or foundations for B.C.’s building boom, is being dumped illegally around the province onto land that could otherwise grow food.
But staffing shortages at the Agricultural Land Commission are hurting the entity’s ability to do anything about it.
“Our resources are stretched to the limit,” said Jennifer Dyson, chair of the Agricultural Land Commission.
“The ratio of cases, versus people, is not sustainable,” Dyson said in an email last month to Delta South MLA Ian Paton.
She added that there’s, “egregious illegal activity in Fraser Valley with well over 20 illegal fill sites.”
Meanwhile there are only three officers to cover the south coast area and six for the entire province, and “a workload out of control.”
“These activities concern us greatly. We are desperate for resources,” she wrote.
She said as of last January, there were 921 active files concerning soil dumping in B.C., with the south coast accounting for more than half of those.
“It’s been going on for quite some time,” said Paton.
Instead of paying tipping fees to dump the soil, rocks and refuse into a landfill or soil deposit area, the structural fill is being spread onto fields around the valley, often metres deep, where it smothers the topsoil that lies below and renders it unproductive.
One way of stopping it is for the ALC to work with municipal governments, which have a better idea of what’s happening locally.
Paton said that when he was on council, Delta brought in a soil deposit bylaw to control it and set up an illegal soil dumping hotline or soil watch campaign.
“So, a lot of the illegal dumping should really be taken on by municipal governments or regional districts,” Paton said.
Delta though is faring better but, “it’s just out of control right now, up in Hatzic Valley, Mission, up in Chilliwack. So, they’re trying to get a handle on it.
“There’s a financial encouragement to some farmers to do this,” he said. “Financially, it’s the easiest way for trucking companies to dispose of material from construction sites by trying to find some out-of-the way place on a farm,” he said.
He said the NDP brought in legislation, which attempted to regulate the issue but said it hasn’t been effective.
According to Avtar Sundher, director of operations at the land commission, authorization is needed to dump soil on to ALR land.
If property owners allow unauthorized dumping, they can be issued fines or told to remove the soil, at the cost of thousands of dollars. A court order can also be sought to ensure compliance.
More enforcement rather than voluntary compliance is needed because unauthorized fill has to be removed and it’s usually not done voluntarily, he added.
“It also creates flooding issues for the neighbours as well,” said Sundher.
Raising a flood-prone property by bringing in fill can mean the water is displaced to other areas.
He said that Delta does have a good program in terms of its bylaws and active enforcement.
“We don’t have too many files in Delta. Right now, our focus is on the Fraser Valley …” with Mission and the Hatzic Lake area being particularly bad.
A spokesman from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food said that legislation in 2019 required people to get ALC approval before bringing fill on to farmland and the ministry is working with the ALC and local government.
Additional resources are now supporting the ALC’s enforcement efforts which has resulted in several stop-work orders and fines, with “significant progress made,” the ministry said.
Ministry staff are also looking at how the ALC can be supported further through increasing their enforcement tools.
