Liquid tar and bubbling, smelly pond with oil film found at Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure’s pit on Gilmour Road
(By News Desk)
UPDATE: The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change will investigate the pit as well.
The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (MOTI) works yard at the top of Gilmour Road contains sticky, smelly asphalt grindings, liquid tar puddles and a small pond with an oil film and bubbles of air or gas coming to the surface. An environmental consultant working for MOTI will assess the pit, the Ministry announced last week. On June 28, the Ministry of Environment said it will investigate the site as well.
The site is on top of a recharge area of the Gibsons aquifer, the Town’s drinkwater source.
The Coast Clarion first visited the yard several weeks ago after a local resident said piles of asphalt grindings and asphalt waste started to appear at the site in the fall.
During the visit, four areas with asphalt waste and grindings were visible. One of the areas had been covered with soil. When the reporter dug a shallow hole in the soil, gooey asphalt chunks appeared. At the north-east end of the lot waste grindings had been pushed down a steep bank.
The Coast Clarion asked MOTI for information about the site on June 14. On June 23, the Ministry replied that “Gilmour Pit is used by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and its maintenance contractor to stockpile materials including winter abrasives and gravels.
“Recently, Gilmour Pit was also used by the Ministry’s maintenance contractor to temporarily store grindings from local paving projects.
“The Ministry allowed these grindings to be temporarily stored recognizing that they would be removed and recycled in a timely fashion. Those asphalt grindings have since been removed,” the statement read.
On June 23, the Coast Clarion visited the site again and saw that most of the material was gone, but there was still asphalt on the ground in the main area. Another area had been covered with more soil.
Both the tar puddles and the bubbling pond on top of he overburden were new.
The Coast Clarion asked MOTI if the site would continue to be used for asphalt storage in the future, and where the asphalt that was removed had gone to.
On June 25, MOTI replied with the following statement: “Protection of the environment is a priority in all Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure operations.
“The ministry will have an environmental consultant assess its gravel pit on Gilmour Road to determine if any further action is required.
“Asphalt grindings are permitted to be stockpiled at ministry pits for future use. The contractor took control of its stored millings and has sold them to a private company to be recycled into asphalt,” the statement said.
Gilmour Pit is located just outside the town of Gibsons, along the north boundary of regional district E (Elphinstone) of the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD). The area is zoned industrial.
When the Coast Clarion asked the SCRD if MOTI had a permit for the asphalt storage, if one was needed, and if the SCRD was aware of the activities at the site, the SCRD said that “the SCRD understands that MOTI as the landowner has been contacted about this matter and is responding.”
On June 28, after this story was published, the BC Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change Strategy gave the following statement: “The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy (ENV) takes the protection of community aquifers seriously. ENV is aware of this site and looking into this matter, including working with Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure staff. ENV compliance and enforcement staff will conduct a site visit,” the statement read.
“The asphalt plant industry and municipal solid waste management are prescribed industries under the Waste Discharge Regulation and as such are mandated by the Environmental Management Act to not cause pollution,” the Ministry of the Environment said.
The Town of Gibsons is aware of the storage of asphalt grindings at the site, Mayor Bill Beamish told the Coast Clarion. “The Town has raised this matter with both the SCRD and the province. We will be having further discussions with the province shortly and again at [the annual conference of] the Union of BC Municipalities,” he said in an email. The conference will take place in September.
“As well, when Waterline [Resources] updates the aquifer study this year we will be asking them to consider all of the industrial activity in our watershed,” the Mayor said.
The disposal site is very porous. Water percolating through the gravel and sand collects into the Capilano aquifer which is the source of 45 per cent of the water in the Gibsons aquifer, as described in the Waterline Resources aquifer presentation to the Town of Gibsons of 2013.
It takes about nine years for water from the area to reach Gibsons’ drinking water wells.
Asphalt, also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum which is mostly used in road construction.
Most old asphalt is recycled into new material by grinding it up and mixing it with tar and aggregate. Previously used asphalt may contain rubber and oil from vehicle traffic.
Asphalt is known to contain highly volatile and noxious petrochemical compounds, heavy metals, and carcinogenic and mutagenic chemicals.
According to the BC government, asphalt is a hazardous material when first created and protection is advised for transporting and applying it — as is the case for most jurisdictions across North America.
The BC government does not classify waste asphalt as hazardous, as it is usually in slabs and inert. The grindings and chunks we found at the site on Gilmour Road were gooey and smelly.
Neither the BC provincial government nor the federal government have specific regulations for the storage of asphalt:
Instruction material by Lafarge, Canada’s largest provider of construction materials, says that reclaimed asphalt pavement should not be released into the environment:
The government of Newfoundland and Labrador says that “improper handling stripped asphalt, and off-specification asphalt, may result in negative environmental impacts. (. . . ) Contaminants of concern in asphalt may include various petroleum hydrocarbons, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals and road salts that can leach into the environment.”
In the United States, asphalt is considered carcinogenic; it is listed in the Toxic Substances Control Act.
The American Army Corps of Engineers forbids the burying of asphalt in wetlands.
The University of California says that asphalt is safe to use, but warns that “The bitumen binder used in asphalt paving applications contains a relatively large concentration of a family of organic compounds which can have the potential to pose human health and environmental concerns in certain circumstances, especially when asphalt material is ground into very small particles that easily blow off of or wash from the surface. These compounds, known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are specified as targeted pollutants by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and are present in asphalt at relatively high levels for general use in a loose fashion on land.”
Dr. André Sobolewski, an environmental consultant who specializes in the remediation of contaminants in water and soil, says there is no question there is some release of toxic substances. “But how much, I don’t know. It’s specific to the situation at the site. Tar does not leach very much,” he said.
“If the pond has a rainbow sheen, something has been spilled there. But if the pond does not drain, it means the bottom is somehow sealed and no materials seep into the ground.”
The only way to be certain is to take samples, Sobolewski said. “The Town of Gibsons and the SCRD should require that MOTI samples the groundwater twice a year, especially after the summer heat, to make sure there is no contamination. If the tests are negative three years in a row, we know there is no threat to the drinking water.”
A better way to dispose of the materials would be in a hazardous waste disposal facility, he said.
Area E Director Donna McMahon said she is all for testing, assuming the province will do it.
Gibsons RV Resort, a few hundred meters below the site, does not use well water but has drinking water from the Town.
The Coast Clarion asked Director of Infrastructure Services Dave Newman where asphalt which is removed during road works in Gibsons is stored. He did not respond.
With files from Michael Maser
Some more photos of the site:
And for those interested, here’s a link to the presentation to the Town of Gibsons (2013) by Waterline Resources, detailing the characteristics of the Gibsons and Capilano aquifers (this is public info posted by the ToG). It’s a no-brainer that dumping waste asphalt grindings directly on top of the Capilano aquifer, which feeds into the Gibsons aquifer, poses some risk to future drinking water quality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCh-RNpODMc
This is very worrisome. Thank you for your diligence.
Thank you Coast Clarion and Michael Maser for bringing to our attention another very worrisome situation: this dangerous mess at the source of the Town’s aquifer. We have known for a number of years the environmental dangers concerning the proposed George development site at the mouth of our aquifer. The Town’s former and present Councils do not seem to care about our Town’s most precious asset — its drinking water. And yet our CAO has presented himself as an eco-manager of the Town’s most important asset without mentioning these problems (see https://broadview.org/gibsons-bc-beachcombers-nature-based-solution).
It is imperative that MOTI begins monitoring this site. The attempt at removal looks awfully half-hearted.
Thank you for this informative article. Exposing any potential hazard to our water system is very important and I commend you for following through on your investigation and reporting.
A very thoroughly researched presentation giving us all cause to keep watch. Thanks for your excellent journalism.
This needs to be remediated immediately especially with the current heat and subsequent accelerated liquification and breakdown of the asphalt. Compliance should not be an option just because it involves work being done by local government using tax payer dollars. Perhaps there is a lack of oversight due to a lack of qualified knowledge being available within their working environment.