The Agricultural Land Protection Commission (CPTAQ) is asking a judge to order the backfilling of an old sand pit located in an agricultural zone in Sainte-Marie-Salomé, in Lanaudière, to be stopped. The place has become the dumping ground for excavated soil on several major construction sites in the region and contaminants dangerous to the environment have been discovered there, as illustrated by a recent report by The Press.
What there is to know
- The soil excavated on large residential sites has been massively buried in an old sand pit in Lanaudière for a year.
- Elected officials and citizens demonstrated against the presence of thousands of trucks dumping their loads on the site.
- The Ministry of the Environment found potentially harmful contaminants on site, when the site was once clean.
“The CPTAQ’s mission is to protect the territory and agricultural activities of Quebec. Practices in the agricultural zone which go against these principles and which are detrimental to the agricultural zone must be taken seriously”, declared the President of the Commission, Stéphane Labrie, in a press release issued on Friday morning.
The organization asserts that the owner of the sand pit did not fulfill the conditions which would have allowed him to backfill the old sand pit in compliance with the standards, and that this filling by thousands of trucks of excavated soil is therefore illegal. He is asking a Superior Court judge to issue an injunction to stop the spills and force the restoration of the site.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
At the beginning of the month, hundreds of trucks continued to come and go between the construction sites and the sandpit.
For more than a year, thousands of trucks have been transporting soil excavated from residential sites to the old sandpit located in Sainte-Marie-Salomé, despite the protests of the mayor of the small town of 1,200 inhabitants.
“I don’t understand how a small municipality can be taken hostage like that,” protested Mayor Véronique Venne in an interview with The Press recently.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Véronique Venne, Mayor of Sainte-Marie-Salomé
“We have a municipal road that becomes a transport road with 100 to 300 trucks a day. The comings and goings are incessant on our territory, ”she explained.
Long-term risk for wells
Last year, the Ministry of the Environment said it discovered traces of contamination with petroleum hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and zinc during tests carried out on site. The site was once free of any contamination linked to human activities, according to the same tests.
According to the inspection report obtained by the municipality, the owner of the site had stated that he received an amount of cash for each load of soil from the “controller” who managed the operations.
“The quality of incoming soil is not adequately checked,” noted the inspector. Given the level of contamination observed, there was no immediate risk for the residents’ wells, but a “long-term” risk did exist, according to her.
The old sandpit belongs to Aurèle Collin, an 83-year-old retired farmer who wants to backfill the site so he can sell it to a younger farmer. “He’s going to make organic cereals,” the owner explained to The Press recently.
Mr. Collin believes that environmental fears are exaggerated. “Let them come and prove that to us, we are ready to defend ourselves,” he said.