Environmental consulting company developed plan for Penticton waste pile removal

A Kelowna-based company that does environmental consulting says it developed a plan for removing a Penticton waste pile to give back during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The waste pile on Green Mountain Road was left behind after Appleton Waste Services, a business that leased the land, declared itself insolvent.

The consulting company, Ecora, said it is helping landlord Adam Eneas to remediate the site.

Ecora said it developed the plan at no cost as a way to make positive change after receiving the federal government’s Canandian Emergency Wage Subsidy during the pandemic.

The disappearance of the longstanding waste pile this week led to public speculation on what was happening with the garbage.

A draft action plan for the waste removal, released by Ecora, shows the plan involves moving much of the garbage, which the company estimates weighs 3,360 tonnes, to a site 175m away for sorting.

There Ecora said it expects it will take time to sort, what is believed to be mostly construction and demolition debris, into different categories for off-site recycling and disposal or on-site composting.

“It will be considerable, it might take a year to go through it all and sort it all, but the environmental plan does not involve burying any garbage,” Ecora president Kelly Sherman said.

Ecora said the plan is aimed at restoring the “the environmental quality and land use potential” of the site.

“Our recommended approach will remove recyclable, inorganic and potentially hazardous materials, with the composting of clean organic materials on-site,” the business said in a statement to media.

Ecora said Eneas Construction is doing the remediation work.

Adam Eneas declined comment on the project.

– with files from Shelby Thom