The cloak and dagger delivery of envelopes filled with seemingly legitimate legal documents, allegations of backroom deals for secret profit-sharing, and fraud – it sounds more like a mystery novel but it’s just the latest in the Shawnigan Lake contaminated soil saga.
The Shawnigan Residents Association (SRA) has applied to the B.C. Supreme Court for an immediate stop to work at South Island Aggregates’ controversial soil treatment facility.
The court application, filed on July 9, follows the delivery of an envelope to the Shawnigan Watershed office by an unknown informant.
In it were documents explaining a complex deal between the companies working to establish the facility, which aims to treat five million tonnes of dirty dirt over the next 50 years.
Based on that information, the Residents Association now alleges that South Island Aggregates and Cobble Hill Holdings made a pact with Active Earth, the engineers hired to do environmental risk assessment on the project, to share profits over the 50-year lifespan of the operation through two numbered companies.