KAMLOOPS — Government officials in Kamloops tomorrow will be met with a slough of sludge-stopping protesters.
The fight to stop biosolids being trucked into the Nicola Valley from parts of the Okanagan and Fraser Valley started back in March, with protesters blocking sewage trucks on Highway 8 in Merritt.
READ MORE: Nicola Valley residents protest influx of sewage sludge from Okanagan
A group of concerned citizens formed the Friends of the Nicola Valley to protest the waste dumping. It, along with various First Nations have continued to raise concerns over the impacts of the sewage being stored on their land.
Officials from the federal, provincial and municipal governments are set to meet tomorrow in Kamloops, and protesters plan to use the meeting to push the sewage sludge issue.
They plan on holding what they call an “information blockade” outside the Kamloops Hotel tomorrow afternoon, where the government meetings are scheduled to be.
In mid-April protesters occupied Premier Christy Clark’s West Kelowna constituency office.
READ MORE: Nicola Valley First Nation supporters occupy Premier Christy Clark’s office
The sit-in lasted six days and ended with a promise for a meeting with high-level government officials.
With no solution reached at the meeting, chiefs from the Nicola Valley took the fight to the legislature in Victoria at the end of May, to give the Premier a moratorium on dumping biosolids in the area, signed by five local chiefs.
But it seems the government has taken a step in the opposite direction.
“Less than two weeks ago the province approved new biosolids site in Dry Lake outside of Merritt,” says Chief Aaron Sam. “Since that’s been approved there’s been community meetings and a lot of community members in the Nicola Valley are really upset that the province is going ahead and not listening to community members concerns.”
After the initial blockades started, biosoilds trucks stopped depositing sewage in the Nicola Valley, re-routing it to the Cariboo for the time being. Protesters continue to have blockades set up to stop any dumping.
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