Merritt Residents Don't Want Bio Waste in Their Backyard

A group in Merritt doesn’t want human waste in their backyard and are calling on the government to stop the dumping in their area.

Photo Credit: Friends of the Nicola Valley

The Friends of the Nicola Valley have been working to grow awareness about the dumping of bio waste in the Nicola Valley. Their concerns involve the purchase of 320 acres of grass land located off of Woodward Road in Sunshine Valley near Merritt. The site has been confirmed as one of three sites in the area to take bio waste from other areas of the province.

Photo Credit: Friends of the Nicola Valley

The group has identified several reasons why having the waste in their community is a major problem:

1. The subject property is directly up hill and behind a 45 lot subdivision that derives its drinking water from an Aquifer almost directly under this 320 acres.
   2. Concern for run off of heavy metal contaminated water into the subdivision and into other water courses, namely the Nicola River (a salmon spawning habitat), as well as productive farmland in the Nicola Valley.
   3. Potential hazardous/toxic waste to be accidently spilled onto properties backing onto Woodward Road as this road is at times, during the winter months, almost impassable.
   4. Airborne contaminants from stock-piled Bio-waste.
   5. Slide potential, as happened in China, from destabilized mounds of Bio Wastes with substantial loss of life.
   6. The fact that the economic downturn for the entire area will be strongly felt by having the presence of this waste become the focal point of the Merritt area.
   7. Areas known to have toxic waste dumps are severely affected by the lack of investor confidence and risk factors associated with “contamination issues”.

The group has launched a Facebook campaign and online petition as they try to get the word out about the sewer sludge destined for their area.

KelownaNow is awaiting a response from the Ministry of Environment regarding this complaint.