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The engineering firm in charge of the removal process for the contentious abandoned trash pile on Green Mountain Road in Penticton has spoken up.
Ecora engineering sent out a news release Saturday addressing concerns about sudden activity Friday at the site of now-defunct Appleton Waste. Much of the mountain of trash was moved from the roadway to an area in the back of the property, which is on Penticton Indian Band Reserve land but owned privately by locatee owner Adam Eneas.
The Penticton Indian Band announced plans to send a cease and desist letter to Eneas Friday.
Kelly Sherman, president of the Ecora engineering and environmental services firm, says the company took on the abandoned waste project at no charge to Eneas, after the federal government's COVID-19 wage subsidy allowed the firm to keep their staff employed during the recent slowdown.
“At no cost, Ecora developed a phased action plan for restoring the environmental quality and land use potential of the former Appleton operation. Our recommended approach will remove recyclable, inorganic and potentially hazardous materials, with the composting of clean organic materials on-site,” Sherman said in a memo to the City of Penticton, Penticton Indian Band and the Regional District of Okanagan Siimlkameen.
“Our hopes are that these facts will change the narrative to the actual situation where the land owners are addressing this situation using plans developed by subject matter experts. It would be great to have PIB, ISC, RDOS, and the Municipality of Penticton be part of the solution and help contribute to addressing this problem."
The detailed sorting of the trash pile is being carried out by Eneas Construction, following Ecora's plan. Sherman says the plan will restore the “environmental quality and land use potential of the former Appleton operation.”
Ecora estimates there is about 3,360 tonnes of waste in pile, and at an assumed sorting rate of six tonnes per hour, the remediation effort is expected to take 70 days.
The three-phase plan includes preparing the sorting and composting site, about 175 metres from the current site, transferring the waste to the sorting site and sorting of the materials, and a final sorting and removal of waste materials from the property.
