CTV News has learned a soil dump operator in Shawnigan Lake ordered to stop importing contaminated material by the BC Supreme Court is filing for an appeal.
The appeal comes four days after the court ruled that the controversial soil dump positioned above the community’s watershed is not a permitted land use for the site.
A BC Supreme Court registry clerk confirmed two appeals have been filed, including a joint appeal filed by Cobble Hill Holdings and South Island Aggregates, and another filed by South Island Resource Management, which operates the site.
It will go to court on April 6 in Vancouver.
Cowichan Valley Regional District Director Sonia Furstenau, who has led the community effort to get the soil dump’s permit revoked, said she expected a drawn-out battle after learning an appeal was filed.
“I’ve said from the very beginning that we knew that this would be a long hard fight, and that we’re in this until the very end, which is when the permit is revoked and the site is cleaned up,” she said.
Furstenau added she can only speak for Shawnigan Lake residents and not the CVRD board, which still has to decide how it wants to respond to the appeal.
“Everybody is recognizing that Monday’s court decision was a great victory, but it did not in any way mark the end,” she said.
In Monday’s Supreme Court ruling, the company was handed an injunction that bans further importing of contaminated soil at the site.
That decision only pertained to one aspect of the company’s operation, the contaminated soil dump, but it is continuing to operate a mine and manage contaminated material already on site.
The judge declined to order the removal of the contaminated soil currently on the property, citing “the difficulty in enforcing a mandatory injunction.”
