Feces fight: Vancouver Island communities at odds over where to send human waste sitting in landfill

A Vancouver Island region's rejection of a proposed solution to dispose of mounting human waste doesn't pass the smell test, according to a neighbouring region that could have to pick up the slack.

Biosolids removed from wastewater from the Capital Regional District are piling up in Saanich's Hartland landfill after equipment at a Richmond, B.C., plant that used them as a fuel alternative broke down in 2022.

According to the Ministry of Environment, biosolids can only be disposed of in a landfill if authorized with a specific permit or operational certificate, and if permitted by the liquid waste management plan governing its source. The province also requires communities to have plans in place to convert the waste to usable end products, like fertilizer pellets or fuel.

But the Capital Regional District (CRD), which includes Saanich, Esquimalt, Sooke and several Gulf Islands, voted last Wednesday to stick with the current contingency landfill plan, rejecting a staff recommendation to allow the region to use treated biosolid fertilizer on its own land.

CDR directors cited health and safety concerns with potential viruses, bacteria and residual pharmaceuticals and microplastics in the waste, issues raised by several local groups and businesses over the last several years.

"The reality is once you've done it, you've done it," Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins, who chairs the CRD's environmental services committee, told CBC's On The Island on Friday.

"This is challenging, but there are enough committee members that feel strongly that land application of biosolids should not occur … frankly anywhere."

But in 2020, CRD's senior manager of environmental protection, Glenn Harris, issued a statement saying the practice is safe.

"Across Canada, public regulators have reviewed the scientific research and data and have concluded that land application of biosolids is safe."

The rejection means the district will continue sending human waste to the landfill and explore sending it elsewhere for processing and use, including to a private quarry in the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN), which uses biosolids as fertilizer.

It also voted to ask staff to work with local researchers to review the scientific data on biosolid land use.

Desjardins stressed this is a short-term solution, and the region is looking at long-term solutions to dispose of the region's waste at home.

"We're between a rock and a hard place," said Desjardins.

Decision is 'hypocritical,' neighbours say

The plan to allow another district to do what the CRD won't itself is "hypocritical," according to Regional District of Nanaimo vice-chair Tyler Brown.

Brown stressed that RDN's biosolid fertilizer program has run for years without issues, and RDN chair Vanessa Craig told CHEK news it meets and exceeds provincial regulations.

Last month, Craig penned a letter to the CRD, asking for further dialogue between the two governments on how CRD could manage its own waste.

"We have difficulty understanding the current approach of the CRD to prevent land application of biosolids within your region while shipping it to another region for the same use," Craig wrote on May 30. 

"While we recognize this is meant to be an interim solution to address an unexpected operational issue, the timeline of addressing the issue is uncertain, and operational difficulties may arise again in the future, which suggests the need for a plan for in-region use of wastewater treatment facility residual solids."

Brown says the CRD's reluctance to explore in-region options to process the waste while relying on Nanaimo to use it is "unfortunate."

"I think it sends a terrible message to our community," said Brown. "It just muddies the conversation, and it would be great if their policies were rooted in science."