A cutting-edge composting plant, touted as the first of its kind, is targeted for Chemainus’ industrial park.

“This will be world’s first Gore-cover system to be fully enclosed in a building,” said Dan Lazaro of Chemainus Composing Inc.

CCI’s two-acre operation on heavy-industrial land would see biosolids — treated septage, restaurant grease and other wastes — trucked in and blended indoors with thousands of tons of buried, untreated wood waste on the former Western Forest Products site.

CCI will employ several full-time staff and could start making some 4,000 annual tons of compost by September’s end, Lazaro said.

But first he needs a North Cowichan business licence plus a waste-stream management licence from the Cowichan Valley Regional District.

Highway access approval is also needed, said North Cowichan planner Chris Hall.

CCI’s site sits on 45 acres owned by Victoria’s Chemainus Park Holdings, Hall said.

The firm is working with the municipality to remediate the property for various industrial uses, Hall explained.

The deadline for public comments to the CVRD about CCI’s proposed plant is 4:30 p.m. Sept.12, noted CVRD environmental technologist Harmony Huffman.

So far, so good permit-wise, she signaled.

“We’re pretty comfortable so far with what they’ve submitted about odour and leachate (liquid run-off), and all aspects of the operation.”

Her boss, CVRD recycling and waste manager Bob McDonald, agreed.

“These folks have stepped up to meet all the requirements we have.

“They’ve been doing pilot projects for several months now and we’ve had no complaints.”

He cited CCI’s assurances “no leachate will hit the ground and no odors will leave the site boundary.”

“They have to compost properly.”

To make sure, CVRD staff will do site inspections and follow up on public complaints, said Huffman.

“In an extreme case we can look at licence suspension,” she said, noting fines are also possible.

Lazaro declined to publicly elaborate on potential plant leachate and odours.

“It’s an odor-free product,” he said

Lazaro has explained CCI’s operations to Huffman.

CCI’s plans call for bio-filters to remove any smell, she said.

“The nearest home is 700 metres away.”

The plant would basically be leachate neutral, Huffman added.

“We’re not worried about leachate from rain.

“They have a source capture system under each composting pile that drains into a central tank, and it’s pumped back onto each pile for moisture, if necessary.”

“It’s similar to a big backyard composter,” summed Lazaro.

He added CCI’s facility would be fully enclosed with berms preventing run-off.

CCI’s operating plan went to B.C.’s environment ministry in January.

Huffman said CCI’s in-vessel composting system would see biosolids unloaded in an enclosed building then mixed with wood chips and moved to lock-block cement bays under Gore–cover technology.

Biosolids will be “a sludge cake that’s dewatered,” she said.

“It’s treated to ministry biosolids standards.”

Cooking compost will be aerated, turned and computer monitored for about two weeks before secondary curing, Huffman said.

“They’d be making a class-A compost you can plant your tomatoes in,” McDonald said.

Luzaro said there’s heavy demand for compost like CCI’s from landscapers and homeowners.

CCI will also sell its waste chips to landscapers and to pulp mills.

Cowichan’s other composting plants are Fisher Road Holdings doing in-vessel composting, and the south-end’s Central Landscape Supplies doing windrow-style composting, Huffman said.

“The CVRD encourages as much local recycling as possible and it adds to overall waste diversion the valley.

“It’s good having healthy recycling in the valley.”

Watchdog group spokesperson has mixed feelings about the operation

Chemainiac Mark Kiemele sees a proposed biosolids-wood waste composting plant near the town as a mixed blessing.

One own hand, Kiemele views Chemainus Composting Inc.’s operation as a needed industry.

One the other hand, he has environmental concerns about proposed site.

“From what I know it’s a fairly benign process, and it’s one of those new industries we may be counting on in future to get us out of the current economic mess were in,” the Chemainus Residents’ Association acting chairman said.

“But I am worried about runoff from that derelict site and contaminated soils that may already be there.

“You never know what’s in these old industrial sites.”

People walking along Hall Road see muck in the ditches too, he said.

That crud runs from the former WFP site into the ditch, then into a culvert connecting to Mill Creek, Kiemele explained.

“I welcome the CVRD to look at the site’s current situation. I went to North Cowichan council with these concerns years ago but they didn’t think it was their problem and said they had no resources to deal with it.”

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