Petition targets compost facility

Vernon Morning Star Published: August 20, 2009 6:00 PM

That is a journey a petition opposing the proposed animal waste composting facility in Grindrod will take in the hands of Shuswap MLA George Abbott.Some 35 people gathered outside Abbott’s office to give him the petition that outlines concerns about the facility’s location - possible runoff from the site, wild animal attractants and odour.“We don’t believe the compost will be safe,” said area resident and protest leader Mary Ouwendyk, noting residents are told not to put meat into their own compost. “We’re afraid it will get into the water. It could be waste leachate, the medications they took before they died, or any disease they had before they died.”Sorrento organic farmer and brewer Rebecca Kneen says the transmission of disease organisms do need to be dealt with.“But, and it’s a big but, proper composting, that is hot composting, can kill just about every pathogen we know of,” she says.

Well-known environmentalist Dr. Warren Bell says he has received many e-mails on the issue.“The process needs to be transparent, it needs to be community centred, and it needs to be based on sound science,” he says. “It absolutely must not be driven by political priorities alone.”Bell says another requirement is that the process must be kept open-ended so it can be modified.“The pressures leading to this happening are intense but not necessarily sensitive to local concerns,” he adds.Those pressures were brought about by an outbreak of mad cow disease in 2006. B.C. slaughterhouses had to absorb thousands of dollars in pick-up services that take the carcasses to Alberta for incineration.

To address this, the provincial and federal government have been investigating hot composting and incineration as more local and less costly solutions to the disposal issue.Ken Corraini, senior manager of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands Program Development and Investment in Victoria, says with mad cow disease, the prions (infectious agents) are located in the brain, ganglia and spinal column of animals older than 30 months and in the ilium of the intestine in younger animals.“This specified risk material (SRM) is removed and sent to Calgary for disposal,” he says, noting the Canadian Food Inspection Agency oversees the process.

Proponents in Grindrod are working with a qualified professional in the composting business, Corraini says.Monitoring of the composting facilities will be up to the Ministry of Environment.“We are trying to help proponents to find a way to satisfy the concerns regarding monitoring,” says Corraini, noting his department continues to find cost-effective incineration solutions as well.“We need to solve both SRM and non-SRM issues and the solution might be we’d have an incinerator to handle SRM and some other method for non-SRM material.”

Residents can learn about the proposed facilities at a meeting to be held Aug. 26 at Grindrod Elementary, from 7 to 10 p.m.