City takes Norampac to court over waste

By Dan Hilborn
Published Sept. 9, 2006


The City of Burnaby is taking one of its largest industrial landowners to court after an alleged illegal landfill was found in the Big Bend region.

A statement of claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court says Norampac Paper Inc. failed to get the necessary city hall approval after it received a provincial waste permit allowing it to discharge up to 8,000 dry tonnes of waste on its 19-hectare (46.9-acre) property.

"Basically, they've been stockpiling the material rather than recycling it so, in fact, we've been misled," said Coun. Dan Johnston, chair of Burnaby's finance and civic development committee and its environment committee. "We've been receiving complaints from neighbouring facilities."

The Norampac property is at the south end of Wiggins Road, adjacent to the Fraser River, and was recently rezoned by the city, against the wishes of the four affected property owners. The new zoning plan requires property owners to adhere to more rigorous environmental guidelines before any new uses or developments are permitted on the land.

According to court documents, the provincial Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks issued Norampac an amended solid waste permit in or about 2001. "In issuing the permit, (the ministry) specifically advised the defendant, Norampac Paper Inc., that the permit would be issued without consideration of Burnaby bylaws," said the statement of claim, prepared by solicitor D.W. Yule, Q.C.

The documents also claim that Norampac initiated the waste landfill operation "in order to avoid the expense associated with incinerating the waste materials or having it hauled offsite to a designated landfill."

The landfill had grown to an alleged size of 15,000 cubic metres before city staff discovered the operation in the spring of 2004, said the documents.

Genevieve Boyer, communications coordinator at Norampac's head office in Quebec, said she was unable to comment on the court proceedings.

However, she noted that the company is "currently not using the landfill site."

Boyer referred all other questions to company president, Marc- Andre Depin, who was unavailable for comment prior to Burnaby NOW deadlines.

The statement of claim alleges that the landfill operation is in violation of three separate Burnaby bylaws - the soil deposit bylaw, the zoning bylaw and the unsightly premises bylaw.

The city's soil deposit bylaw prohibits the deposit of any sand, gravel, rock and other materials on any land without a permit from the Burnaby's municipal engineer.

"No such permit has been issued," said the document.

The suit also claims that the landfill will "render the property impracticable for future subdivision and development."

The lawsuit also claims that Burnaby began seeking voluntary compliance from Norampac in 2004 but imposed a deadline of March 31, 2006 on the cleanup operation, after the company gave assurances that it was working towards compliance by way of incinerating parts of the waste material and hauling the remaining materials to an offsite designated landfill.

"Despite Burnaby's attempts to obtain voluntary compliance and despite Burnaby's warning that legal action would be taken unless the waste landfill operation stopped, the defendants have, by their own admission, continued or permitted to continue the waste landfill operation on the property," said the statement of claim.

The city's lawsuit is only the latest in a string of troubles for the paper recycling facility.

In August 2002, an estimated $1 million worth of recycled paper was destroyed when a fire struck the site, and just two years later, the operation was closed for eight months when its unionized employees went on strike.

Earlier this year, the GVRD also filed suit against Norampac asking for $1.5 million to pay for steam supplied by the neighbouring Montenay garbage incinerator. That suit was subsequently suspended, said Bill Morrell, manager of communications with the GVRD.