B.C. couple says their water supply contaminated by logging activity – Agassiz Harrison Observer

When Beth Patterson and her partner Nels Olson moved to Avola last July, they were delighted to have a creek running through their 45-acre property to source their water.

But just a few weeks after acclimatization, they were surprised to find brown water running out of their taps “like chocolate milk.”

Patterson did some research and went to where the creek splits into the property’s sieve ponds. The water was muddy all along the creek, as if there had been a slide. The next day, Olson headed north, following the creek through steep, overgrown terrain.

Eventually he came across a new logging road being built across the creek about a mile from their property.

Beth Patterson and Nels Olson’s water supply was like “chocolate milk” after the contamination. (Submitted Photo)

He said he saw no retaining walls or other measures to prevent runoff or rupture from falling into the stream below.

“Parts of the road they built literally slid down the hill into our drinking water,” Patterson said.

The couple said they were not informed that logging or construction was taking place near their property. Patterson said she called the previous owner, who told them BC Timber Sales (BCTS) had told them they were logging some of the land north of the property.

However, as far as she can tell, they weren’t supposed to be working yet, she said, noting that she had given BCTS the couple’s information.

“There’s just no way they couldn’t have gotten us,” Olson said. “The previous owner gave them our number and name. I personally grew up in the same neighborhood as the main foreman here…there’s no excuse for them doing what they did.”

Patterson and Olson located contacts at BCTS who said they would send a representative to assess the situation. The next day they received a call from BCTS advising them that the sediment fence had fallen but had been repaired.

BCTS also came with an excavator to clean out one of the tailings ponds and helped flush the irrigation system and water heater.

A tailings pond on Beth Patterson and Nels Olson’s property in Avola. (Submitted Photo)

However, she said their water quality has never been the same and they feel it is unsafe and unsanitary.

“It just covers everything,” she said. “When I do a load of laundry, the amount of sediment inside is insane. I have to suck it out every time.”

The couple filed three natural resource violation tickets for water quality and paid to have their water tested. When their water tests showed high levels of E. coli, heavy metals and uranium, they turned to the Forest Practices Board (FPB).

Patterson said BCTS paid for more water testing. Since the initial tests and the system flushes, she said, subsequent tests have shown a decrease in heavy metal levels, but the turbidity is still higher than the recommended level for drinking water.

And a few months later, in November, BCTS agreed to provide the couple with drinking water, delivering about 10 20-liter jugs of filtered water every few weeks. Patterson said they suggested the couple install a well, but she argued the water supply would come from the same site that had been contaminated.

“We’re kind of at a stalemate right now,” Patterson said. “They have not provided a plan to fix the problem.”

BC Timber Sales has not responded to numerous requests for comment on this story. Times staff contacted them several times via email and left several voicemails with their headquarters in Victoria.

The couple turned to environmental agencies and legal aid programs. Rejected by many groups, they eventually received help from West Coast Environmental Aid and received grants to pay an environmental attorney, Carla Conkin.

Conkin said they tried to have a conversation with the province to resolve the issue before taking formal legal action. She claimed they would proceed with all available legal remedies.

In a case like hers, she said, there really is no point in dispute.

Portions of a logging road built north of Beth Patterson and Nels Olson’s property in Avola have collapsed, throwing sediment into the land below. (Submitted Photo)

“They say, ‘Patterson and Olson used to have a water supply and now they don’t have it,'” Conkin said.

She added that the case is not just about Patterson and Olson, but anyone who owns rural property that could be logging nearby. It’s a David and Goliath situation, noted Conkin – a couple buying their dream property versus the government.

“The bottom line is simply that they don’t have access to water… and the province has been silent on that,” she said. “This isn’t something that should go to court, it’s about doing and doing the right thing and there’s just no question of blame.”

The FPB confirmed to the Times that they are investigating a complaint from Avola residents “about the impact of road construction on their water.”

A site visit was conducted and stakeholders were interviewed. Once the research is complete, the board said it will review it and make it available to the public along with recommendations for improving forest practices and planning. The FPB cannot impose fines or impose penalties. The report is expected in early summer.

The Times reached out to Interior Health, and a spokesman said the health agency has not received an inquiry regarding the property, adding that it does not regularly monitor or inspect private water systems. However, they said that “environmental health officials will review certain health concerns when raised about individual sources”.

The Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resources and Rural Development said in a statement it had received a letter from a lawyer written to it regarding a property in Avola and when the matter was referred to the ministry’s lawyer for investigation it was able to they do not comment on it .

As the weather warms, Patterson and Olson worry that construction on the road will continue. They are also concerned about a 30-person camp to be built in the Avola area this fall or 2023. If BCTS goes ahead with its project, they could cross Avola Creek, where many townspeople get their water.

“Everybody else in town is going to be dealing with exactly the same thing as we are,” Patterson said. “We are the canary in the coal mine.”

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