With the goal of updating Village of Pemberton (VOP) mayor and council, Scott Kerr, general manager of Sea to Sky Soils—a local soil and compost producer in the corridor—was on hand at Pemberton’s April 5 council meeting to share what the company will be focusing on in the coming year.
Looking back on 2021, Sea to Sky Soils processed more than 30,000 tonnes of organic waste despite losing a major organic waste contract partway through the year, according to Kerr.
“So that’s great. That’s all stuff that was kept out of the landfill … it’s not generating methane in the landfill, it’s being used to generate compost and soil amenders and the nutrients are kept in the food cycle,” he said. “And the fact that this contract was lost also meant that there was some available capacity on site and some new opportunities as well that we tried to seize on.”
Heading into this year, Sea to Sky Soils plans to continue producing premium soil and compost to aid in the production of food by the corridor’s farmers. The company also has plans to increase environmental protections, including stormwater capture and treatment, and incorporate “more stringent environmental monitoring.”
“Compost that leaves the site is tested all the time already and will continue to be,” said Kerr. “So any stormwater that is running off the site will be tested much more thoroughly in the future as well. So, those will be some changes that happen.”
One concern brought up by Councillor Amica Antonelli is the amount of plastic that usually ends up on site during compost production, and whether that would be a focal point for Kerr in the coming year as well.
While plastic is the perennial problem for compost producers, according to Kerr, he said despite Sea to Sky Soils having less plastic than many other similar sites, cleaning up the stray plastic left behind during production is a major focus for the company moving forward.
“Some of [these sites], you walk on and it feels like you’re walking on to a landfill just littered with plastic. So there’s a few aspects to solving the problem … a big one is education. The more we can get people to stop throwing plastic in their bins, the better off the whole system works,” said Kerr. “What we do now is primarily manual removal. So you can imagine people standing, bending over and picking up a piece of plastic is pretty hard on your body, it’s pretty inefficient. And so we have set up and are in the final stages of commissioning a picking plant where people are standing in a comfortable position and they pick off the plastic as it moves by them on the conveyor belt. So that’s sort of the main step we’re taking for plastic removal this year.”
COUNCIL TO HEAR REPORT ON RODENTICIDES
Pemberton local Nicole Jean joined council in person on April 5 to share her thoughts about the use of rodenticides and the risks they pose to the local bird population.
Jean, who spoke to Pique about her concerns for an article in the March 24 issue, told council her story of finding multiple dead and dying birds of prey in a small area around her house all within the last year.
“I’m just here as a concerned citizen. I’ve lived in the Pemberton area for 30 years and I have never had this experience before,” she told council. “So I just wanted to raise awareness in our community that this is starting to become a problem.”
Jean requested council to consider joining the many other municipalities in the province which have already banned rodenticides altogether, to which Mayor Mike Richman informed her this issue has been brought to council’s attention in the past.
Council is expecting a report on the topic to be presented by staff at a future meeting where a decision will be made on how to move forward, the mayor said.
APRIL IS SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS MONTH
The third and final presentation at the April 5 council meeting was made by Howe Sound Women’s Centre Society’s (HSWC) community program director Shana Murray, who was there to request that council proclaim Sexual Assault Awareness Month for April.
“We’re just looking for all the communities in the Sea to Sky corridor to proclaim it for us as a way to sort of basically put forward the intention for the increased awareness in our communities,” she said. “We see this not only as a foundational act of political support, but support in a way that aims to prevent sexual violence in our communities.”
The HSWC hopes that the proclamation can help educate and bring awareness to people in the corridor.
Council ultimately approved the request and proclaimed April to be Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
The HSWC has many different projects planned to raise awareness this month, including presentations planned for different groups, social media campaigns and the Clothesline Project—a public art display of people’s images or experiences with gender-based violence—happening this week in Squamish and Whistler.
More information on Sexual Assault Awareness Month and other HSWC projects can be found at hswc.ca.
