WATCH ABOVE: Protesters surround one of the trucks trying to get to the plant in the Nicola Valley.
UPDATE: 12: 30 p.m.
A truck carrying equipment for BioCentral has been allowed through to a processing plant in the Nicola Valley.
Protesters have also agreed to allow the company to ship equipment from the site to the Lower Mainland.
UPDATE: 11: 30 a.m.
BioCentral has agreed to meet with protesters and promises to hold off on any legal action until that meeting. The meeting is tentatively scheduled for next Wednesday, May 6.
Protesters say they will allow this morning’s truck to go through once they receive confirmation of the meeting.
UPDATE – 11:00 a.m.
Protesters are being sued by half a dozen companies involved with hauling treated sewage waste to a processing plant in the Nicola Valley.
A man refusing to identify himself to Global News is seen handing out envelopes to protesters. The court document is a Notice of Civil Claim.
In the document, Timbro contracting, TC Merritt Valley Farms, BioCentral Green Depot, RT-2 Holdings Limited, AM-2 ventures Limited and CT-2 Holdings Limited are suing friends of the Nicola Valley.
The truck carrying equipment arrived in Merritt just before 10 a.m. Wednesday.
A crowd of about a hundred protesters acted swiftly, blocking BioCentral from getting through on Highway 8.
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Protesters are currently trying to get in touch with the truck driver’s supervisor, demanding to meet with BioCentral. They say unless that meeting happens, any trucks carrying biosolids will be blocked.
There are about half a dozen RCMP officers, ensuring that the rally remains peaceful. So far, Mounties have not had to take action.
Traffic is being detoured around the blockade.
MERRITT — Protesters say the stage is set for a confrontation after learning that a truck carrying biosolids is headed to Merritt today.
The protesters, local First Nations and area residents, have been blocking biosolids from being shipped to a private property in the Merritt area.
The controversy prompted a group of First Nations chiefs from the Nicola Valley to stage a week-long sit in at Christy Clark’s constituency office in West Kelowna.
The sit-in ended with the government agreed to a meeting with the chiefs, but the talks failed to come to a resolution.
A group called Friends of the Nicola Valley has issued a news release stating that the company that is hauling the biosolids plans on sending a truck through First Nations land at Shulus this morning.
The group says the company that is storing and composting the biosolids, BioCentral, has indicated that anyone who tries to stop the truck will be served with a notice of civil claim.
Friends of Nicola Valley says it plans on defying the ‘notice’ and that arrests are expected.
The biosolids are being shipped from the Lower Mainland and Central Okanagan.
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