City Hall is evaluating legal options after about a half dozen Salmon Valley residents turned back a truck carrying biosolids destined for farmland in the area, operations superintendent Bill Gaal said Monday.
The residents had set up a blockade on Wright Creek Road, just off Highway 97 North and just south of Salmon Valley, claiming the material poses an environmental hazard.
"Trying to be good neighbours and good corporate citizens, we didn't push the issue on Friday," Gaal said of the decision to turn the truck around. "But that doesn't mean we have necessarily lost our resolve to haul to Wright Creek Road."
When asked if a court-ordered injunction against blocking delivery of the material is possible, Gaal sad that may be one option.
The material is made out of sludge from the Lansdowne sewage plant and is usually spread on farmland and tree farms as a fertilizer.
It's categorized as class B under the province's organic matter recycling regulation and takes a less-stringent process to make than class A, but contains more pathogens and heavy metals and there are greater restrictions on how much can be applied to the land.
Blockade leader Andy Angele maintains the material is hazardous, noting it contains a long list of toxins. He also said it will be spread on a sloped area that drains into nearby springs and creeks.
However, the city says those toxins come in only trace amounts, particularly once the biosolids are disked into the soil and that the material has a peat-like quality and retains moisture, particularly once crops that also absorb water are planted into land where it is applied.
"We've been doing this for 25 years now without ever there being an issue," Gaal said.
Gaal said the city has been keeping close contact with Angele over the past year or so.
"[We've been] giving him results of our sampling to show Mr. Angele just how safe it is and that we do follow the best practices for application," Gaal said.
"We have included him in all of this, up to and including telling him the days we are hauling."
