New Revelations about proposed Bliss Landing wood waste landfill

Roy L Hales / Cortes Currents - There have been a number of new revelations about Jeff Levine and the proposed Bliss Landing wood waste landfill.

Levine withdrew his proposal on December 15th and a Ministry of Environment spokesperson informed the quathet Regional District the same day.

"People have threatened me, verbally abused me, threatened my family. It's not worth it, it's absolutely not worth it. And it's all because this person called it toxic waste — and it's not," he told CBC news.

Levine added, “If you don’t agree with the industrialization of an area, that’s one thing to disagree with, but don’t try to turn someone into [an] environmental monster that’s going to dump hazardous waste on land and ocean and negatively affect people, because those are two different things.... I was guided by the Ministry of Environment by this process, and I followed the process.”

Variations of Levine’s story appeared in Cortes Currents, The Squamish Chief, and Powell River Peak.

He claims to have already lost $400,000 through the venture. 1.25

Much of the opposition came through a Change.org petition called “Major Vancouver developer planning on dumping toxic waste into Desolation Sound.”

The ‘developer’ in question was not Levine, but rather a Vancouver based company which he hoped would use his services. Levine has repeatedly said he does not have a contract with Bosa Properties, the owners of the Squamish old site, and will also be seeking wood waste from sites throughout the Fraser Valley.

The Squamish Chief reported that District of Squamish staff informed them that, “the District is not banning wood waste from being disposed of in town, but determined in 2017 that municipal land would no longer be leased for wood waste disposal, and that wood waste landfill on District property will be phased out by 2022.

As a result, Levine created a company and offered up land that he bought in Desolation Sound as a dumping spot for local businesses seeking to get rid of their wood waste.

He said he was hoping to attract the business of the SEAandSKY Bosa-Kingswood project on the Waterfront, which has been looking for a contractor to take the wood waste, as the area was previously the old Interfor mill site.

However, Levine hadn’t signed a deal with the company, as the province had yet to approve his project.”

A spokesperson for Boas Properties confirmed that no contract has been signed.

The report which Vancouver based Keystone Environmental prepared for Levine states, “The material to be landfilled will originate from several wood processing locations such as sawmills, dry land sorts and former sawmills where the saw dust, wood chips and bark was previously buried.”

Image taken from the from WATERFRONT LANDING SUB AREA PLAN, Squamish Community plan (2017)