Lake Echo residents 'flabbergasted' by proposed waste site

People who live in the Lake Echo area say they're concerned material is already piling up at the site of a proposed waste processing facility, before it's been approved by the city.  

Mike Thomas said he didn't know about the proposed development, just down the road from his home, until he walked by a sign announcing the application for a construction and demolition waste processing facility.

"I was shocked," he said. "Why didn't we know about this when the process started four months ago?"

A company called Kiann Management has applied to the city to rezone the 15-hecatre lot, an area recently razed by forest fires. Kiann did not respond to CBC's request for a comment.

Thomas held a community meeting about the project this week where he says about 150 people showed up. He's also started a petition to stop development of the site. 

"People have a lot of concerns about traffic, of course the environment, property values," he said.

The project is still months away from approval, but demolition debris is already piling up.

"We were flabbergasted actually. I mean there's concrete, rebar, wire, conduit, burnt garbage bags," said Thomas.

David Hendsbee, the councillor for the area, says some of the debris came from the Gordon Bell Annex in Cole Harbour, which was demolished this winter.

Kiann carried out the contract and dumped the debris at the Lake Echo site.

"My understanding is that the owner plans to reprocess the concrete, to break it down to a gravel aggregate, and also to reclaim the rebar that's in it," Hendsbee said.

The Department of Environment says it received two complaints last week about dumping at the site. It says it plans to send investigators to check out the site and talk to the owner of the property sometime this week.

Shortly after photos of the dumped debris hit social media the site was covered up. 

A public meeting about the development will be held next month.