Plans to send the Capital Regional District’s unwanted biosolids to the Nanaimo area are a lot less firm than was earlier believed.
CRD board members approved the proposal on Feb. 8 after staff mistakenly said that the CRD had been in touch with the Regional District of Nanaimo, chief administrative officer Ted Robbins said Monday.
The Nanaimo Regional District did not offer to take CRD’s biosolids, a crumbly pellet-like product that is the end result of sewage treatment.
Rather, CRD staff had spoken to a consultant who works with forest company Mosaic to distribute Nanaimo-generated biosolids on forests and for land reclamation.
On Monday, a meeting of senior staff at both regional districts discussed the matter, Robbins said. Nothing has been settled but if an agreement is reached, sending capital region biosolids to Nanaimo would be a contingency plan.
The CRD is in a bind right now with nowhere to send its biosolids. They had been destined for the LaFarge cement kiln in Richmond, but that plant has been out of service. As biosolids accumulated, the CRD put them in the Hartland Landfill, something it is not supposed to do.
Robbins said that LaFarge is now saying that it may be able to resume accepting the CRD’s biosolids. If that’s the case, then it would likely not need to send any to Nanaimo. The CRD will continue its discussions with Nanaimo to develop a backup plan.
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