A new proposed facility for the former Brenda Mines site will be a topic of conversation on Thursday evening (June 24).
The community conversation, organized and hosted by the Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance (PWPA), sprung up due to some concerns by both the PWPA and residents, which Brenda Renewables wanted to address.
The company’s president and managing partner Matthew Malkin and project manager Rolfe Philip said they met with PWPA representatives to dispel some of the misconceptions they may have had, including what will be processed at the proposed facility and how safe Peachland’s water source will be.
“Brenda Mines straddles the Peachland Creek, where Peachland draws water from, and Trepanier Creek. The water management features Glencore established takes all existing water from the capture basin at the site, treats all that liquid and dispenses it into Trepanier Creek,” Philip said.
“With Peachland’s latest water treatment facility, they’re now drawing water specifically from Peachland Creek. We’re not discharging there.”
As for what Brenda Renewables will be processing at the site, Malkin and Rolfe clarified that they’re not going to be dealing with sewage material, as some people may have thought.
“That’s a huge misrepresentation of what we’re doing. At no point will we ever be taking sewer sludge or manure or anything like that. We’re taking already processed biosolids from the wastewater treatment plant and we’re going to take it one step further so we can properly treat everything,” Malkin said.
READ MORE: Compost, renewable gas facility proposed for former Brenda Mines site
Philip added that overall, biosolids will only represent about 20 per cent of the materials they will be processing.
“The balance of the feedstock that comes in and gets blended into our compost and anaerobic digesters are yard and garden waste from residential areas, food scraps, pulp from wineries, fruit peels and things like that,” Philip said.
Concerns over the facility sprang up due to the lack of educational outreach by Brenda Renewables at the start of the process, claimed PWPA president Taryn Skalbania.
“They didn’t consult with us. They didn’t come to a community town hall… unless people go to council meetings or read minutes, no one really knows what’s going on,” she said.
For her part, Skalbania said Brenda Renewables did clarify some of the details and allayed some of the concerns the PWPA had.
“I’m much more comfortable (about the facility) after talking to them but I’m not completely comfortable. Why? Because we’ve been told things before in the past,” she said.
“We were told Brenda Mines would reclaim the site 30 years ago. That still hasn’t happened… but that’s why the PWPA exists, to keep conversations going and to get people asking questions. We’ve had a conversation, so we’re still happy with that outcome.”
Malkin and Philip said that as the process continues, they will also be establishing an educational kiosk in Peachland so residents can come to them with their questions. The kiosk is scheduled to be up and running in the next 30 days or so.
Tomorrow’s community session will take place at the Little School House at 7 p.m.
READ MORE: Biosolids composting may be ‘crappy idea’: Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance
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