Parliament Buildings Victoria, BC V8V 1X4 Telephone 250.387.3655 Fax 250.38734680 [email protected]

Province of Community Offices: 273 Trunk Road Legislative Assembly PO Box 599 Duncan, BC V9L 3X9 Telephone 250.715-0127 Fax 250.715.0139 Toll Free 1.877.715.0127 Bill Routley, MLA (Cowichan Valley) Hon. Terry Lake April3, 2013 Minister of Environment Room 112 - Parliament Buildings Victoria, B.C. V8V 1X4

Dear Minister,

RE: Joint "all party" request to NOT ISSUE A PERMIT etc signed by all Cowichan Valley Candidates for the upcoming BC Election.

I think you will agree that this attached jointly signed letter is an unusual occurrence, NDP, Conservatives, Liberal and Green Party representatives all attended a public 1 meeting March 25 h 2013 and the message from the community was clear the community requests that you Not Issue a Permit that could threaten the communities water. At the meeting the all party representatives jointly signed the attached letter regarding Standing together for Clean Drinking Water for the people of Shawnigan Lake.

The Community is clear about what they want regarding not signing the permit and they expect that the Provincial Government will act accordingly. Government has a number of tools at your disposal to permit you to act in the interests of the community. Should you have any doubts about what the community wants I encourage you to hold a Public meeting in Shawnigan yourself to hear firsthand about the communities science based clean drinking water concerns.

In addition, I have received a copy of a letter from Mr Dennis Lowen, who is a geological engineer with 40 years experience in Hydrogeology. Mr Lowen who is acting "independently", has raised many more serious concerns regarding this matter, specifically he says

Conclusions The proposed SIA contaminated soils landfill site provides no natural protection for the established drinking water sources in the region. The site is not suitable for a landfill. All environmental and drinking water protection measures proposed must be engineered (man-made) and are prone to failure. Furthermore the protection measures would have to be maintained in perpetuity. This is not a sustainable proposal. The environmental assessment (TAR) carried out for the proposal has many errors and omissions all of which favour the proponent.

Closing If the SIA contaminated soil landfill proposal is allowed to proceed it will present and unacceptable risk to local drinking water supplies. The proposal should be rejected. If our region needs a site for disposal/treatment of contaminated soils then there are many more suitable sites that are available. A siting study and selection process should be undergone to locate these sites; however, recent advances in contaminated soils treatment techniques provide another option. Contaminated soils can be treated where found making hauling and dumping unnecessary.

Dennis A. Lowen, P. Eng. Writer's Qualifications: Dennis Lowen, P. Eng., P. Geo. is a geological engineer with 40 years of experience in hydrogeology. He specializes in hydrogeology studies, environmental impacts studies plus groundwater supply projects. Mr. Lowen has worked in hydrogeology in Western Canada and in 10 overseas nations with extensive experience in BC since 1978. He has completed several landfill siting, design and closure projects and numerous landfill leachate studies. Mr. Lowen has provided hydrogeological expert witness testimony before the BC Environmental Review Board and the Supreme Court ofBC. Mr. Lowen's company (LHC) has completed at least 6 projects in the south Shawnigan Lake region over the last 10 years. LHC also has extensive experience in aquifer mapping having mapped more than 400 aquifers for the BC Ministry of Enviromnent.

I believe Mr Lowen's independent professional opinion must be taken very seriously if government is in fact using proper due diligence in making a decision on this issue.

I look forward to hearing from you on this matter and sharing your information with my constituents. Thank you for your attention to these matters.

Yours Sincerely,

Bill Routley, MLA Cowichan Valley

Enclosures cc: Premier Adrian Dix - Opposition Leader Hon. Dr. Margaret MacDiarmid - Minister of Health Hon. Steve Thomson - Minster of Forest and Lands, Natural Resources Operations

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