UPDATE – Coldstream council chambers were packed Monday night as council voted to issue a development permit for a proposed Lavington pellet plant. Mayor Jim Garlick says it is not legal to withhold a development permit over an issue that is not addressed by the permit.
Councillors Gyula Kiss and Glen Taylor voted against issuing the permit. Kiss voted no because he has questions about information used by Ministry of Environment in their decisions around the project.
“Council requested the Ministry of Environment fulfill certain obligations and to me it wasn’t done,” says Kiss.
Councillor Richard Enns was not at the meeting.
Garlick says the project still needs a building permit.
COLDSTREAM – A controversial pellet plant is back before Coldstream council Monday night. The districtis looking at issuing a development permit for the project, which is a partnership between Tolko and Pinnacle Renewable Energy. Critics are concerned about air quality but proponents argue the plan will actually mean an improvement.
The plan is to build the proposed pellet plant north of a Tolko sawmill in Lavington. It would take sawdust and shavings from the mill and turn them into pellet fuel.
Critics are concerned the site is near an elementary school.
“We’d like to see it not happen, period,” says resident Jerome Hildebrand. “We are personally concerned just due to the proximity of the plant, how close it is to the school and the kids.”
In December, the Ministry of Environment authorized the proposed plant to discharge air contaminants.
However, one of the conditions is that the nearby Tolko sawmill must upgrade its pollution control equipment and reduce emissions before its new neighbour can operate.
“As a result, it is expected that the overall impact to the airshed from both facilities will result in a net reduction of particulate discharges, and subsequent improvement, to local air quality,” wrote a ministry spokesperson in an emailed statement.
However, some critics question the numbers.
“Our concern is that the scientific basis and technical analysis for the original Ministry of Environment permit is not sufficient for Coldstream council to proceed at this time,” says Lavington resident Tom Coape-Arnold. “Offsets have been proposed from the Tolko mill but those offsets haven’t been measured and they are a complete variance with… discharge numbers that Tolko actually submits to Environment Canada.”
“The estimates that we have been using for assessing this project are the ones that the experts that we have within the government here in B.C., to evaluate projects, are comfortable with,” says Pinnacle Renewable Energy president Leroy Reitsma. “This is an air quality improvement project.”
The company estimates the project will increase traffic by four trucks a day.
If a development permit is issued, Reitsma says they can start construction of the pellet plant in the next few weeks.
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