Citizens group has made urgent appeal to the provincial government to obtain critical information about possible risks to the Gibsons aquifer
(By Margot Grant)
The Town of Gibsons has refused to release information about the geotechnical reports of the George development concerning the aquifer.
On February 2, 2018, corporate officer Selina Williams emailed the Gibsons Alliance of Business and Community (GABC) that “the Town considered if the release of the records would provide a public benefit [and] assist the public in better understanding the matter, and determined that it would not. The content of those records is extremely technical and would require expert interpretation to be understood. In the absence of that expert interpretation, the records provide no benefit to the public.”
That was not the only reason to withhold the information, she added: “Given the GABC’s history of misrepresenting information to the public, and taking opposing stands on the same issue to serve its private interests, the Town is exercising its discretion to withhold those records to ensure they are not misrepresented to the public.”
As of last week, Williams no longer works for the Town. When The Coast Clarion asked Chief Administrative Officer Emanuel Machado if the Town now would release the documents, he said the Town believes there is no need to do so. “That is our view,” he said.
After GABC’s Freedom of Information request to obtain the documents was denied, the organization filed an appeal with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commission.
“The Town was trying to justify withholding public records based on an arbitrary analysis of whether the public could properly interpret the record. Frankly, I was shocked by that argument,” said GABC past president Suzanne Senger, who had made the Freedom of Information request and filed the appeal. “For a local government to withhold public documents out of fear that the record may be misinterpreted is a blatant violation of the public’s right to access information. It is an abuse of power.”
The developer of the George Hotel and Residences project has retained Horizon Engineering Inc. as its consultant for geotechnical engineering at the site since 2012. In 2014, the Town requested peer reviews of its work from geotechnical and environment engineering firm Levelton Consultants Ltd. and environmental and hydrogeology consulting firm Waterline Resources Inc., the firm that conducted the mapping of the aquifer in 2009.
In a report dated June 25, 2014, Waterline Resources wrote that it “has never been provided with the architectural drawings for the proposed development and we believe that insufficient data is provided in the Horizon report to show the proposed structure’s relative to the Gibsons aquifer system. Horizon’s use of ‘approximate’ proposed excavation depths, top-of-slab elevation and dredging deaths are not adequate.”
Waterline also doubted Horizon’s assertion that the water levels in the aquifer were stabilized. “The groundwater levels were measured at the time of drilling or prior to borehole abandonment. Long-term monitoring would be required to determine stabilized or static groundwater levels,” the firm wrote.
“Insufficient data is available to fully understand the impact of the proposed marine development on the Gibsons aquifer-aquitard system,” the report further reads. ”Waterline’s main concern is on the land portion of the project related to the possibility of an uncontrollable breach of the Gibsons aquitard caused by the proposed excavation for the parking garage.”
In its report of June 23, 2014, Levelton Engineering wrote that eight aspects of Horizon’s plan required further in-depth assessment to minimize risks to the aquifer. A second peer review by Levelton dated May 7, 2015, said the Horizon study did not seem to have considered factors that might result in an uncontrolled sinkhole, aquifer depressurization, or ground settlement.
At a special council meeting at the Legion on May 12, 2015, Horizon project engineer Karim Karzadegan said the mitigation work the firm had done since learning that their original plans put the aquifer in jeopardy would be sufficient to protect the aquifer.
At the meeting, Town planner Andre Boel briefly summarized the Levelton and Waterline reports, but no representatives of the firms were present to give a presentation or answer questions. Gibsons council voted unanimously to pass first reading of the zoning amendment for the project. The zoning bylaw was approved in October 2015 on the basis that the technical issues would be dealt with through the development permitting process.
When the development permits were issued on July 31, 2017, the Town cited further peer reviews as the basis for its approval of the project. It mentioned peer reviews by Waterline Resources and Levelton Engineering between May 12, 2015 and November 1, 2017; a peer review by newly hired Geosystems L.P. from Pennsylvania dated April 18, 2017; and a Geosystems L.P. review of Horizon Engineering Inc.’s Draft Report of May 15, 2017 dated May 29, 2017.
However, the Town has refused to release these reports to the public. The draft report by Horizon Engineering of May 15, 2017 has also been withheld. The Town further claims there is no record of a teleconference of Geosystems L.P. with the Town on May 23, 2017, although the conference is mentioned in May 29, 2017 letter to the Town from Geosystems, L.P.
Section 13 (2) of B.C.’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPPA) states that “a public body must not refuse to disclose under subsection (1) (a) any factual material, (f) an environmental impact statement or similar information, (j) a report on the results of field research undertaken before a policy proposal is formulated” or “(m) information that the head of the public body has cited publicly as the basis for making a decision or formulating a policy.”
Section 25 of FOIPPA says that information must be disclosed if in the public interest. “Whether or not a request for access is made, the head of a public body must, without delay, disclose to the public, to an affected group of people or to an applicant, information (a) about a risk of significant harm to the environment or to the health or safety of the public or a group of people, or (b) the disclosure of which is, for any other reason, clearly in the public interest.”
Smells like dirty politics and politicians to me… and aren’t we sick to death of those in BC! Citizens of Gibsons deserve much much more from our local elected politicians. Time to clean house and elect people who represent citizens instead of big money.