Residents will get their chance to comment on a new tire recycling facility in the region.
The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George directors have cleared the path to a public hearing for a proposed new use of the Canfor Clear Lake Sawmill site.
The site, located off Blackwater Road about eight kilometres from West Lake, is the subject of a zoning amendment to allow a tire and rubber recycling facility and multiple-residential housing.
The Blackwater Recycling Ltd. operation would run under the regulation and support of Tire Stewardship BC and the first phase would focus on recycling passenger tires to tractor trailer tires.
Tire and rubber storage would take place within the former metal sawmill building, which is also equipped with a concrete floor and fire protection system.
The processing facility would be housed in the form finger jointing plant, where rubber crumb would be produced. The grinding process, similar to hog grinding in sawmills, does not involve burning, melting or significant air emissions, according to a staff report.
The applicant also wishes to re-establish the housing the existed when the mill was in operation for employees and security purposes. Up to seven houses are proposed for the short term, with a potential expansion of the neighbourhood to 30 dwellings.
The application is still being hammered out with the Ministry of the Environment for a variety of reasons, including working through the provincial contaminated sites regulations.
Area C director Lara Beckett said she was looking forward to the public hearing, but asked to hold off on the actual event until they had more information in hand.
"I suggest we wait until we have as much information from Ministry of Environment processes before we go to a public hearing," she said, acknowledging there would undoubtedly be questions that they may not yet have answers to.
