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An appeal against the Pinnacle pellet operation in Lavington continues to drag on for three Lavington families.
An environmental appeal board hearing set for this month has been put off until April of next year, after the Ministry of Justice said it's lawyer would not be able to attend, according to Tom Coape-Arnold, who's involved in the appeal.
He said this is the second time the hearing has not gone ahead. The first time, in September, was due to a government lawyer being injured in an accident.
“I find it extremely frustrating,” said Coape-Arnold. “We're feeling stonewalled by our government.”
“The delays seem unnecessary,” he added, pointing to Freedom of Information requests that have been deferred three times.
Coape-Arnold said the small group had 30 days to file an appeal of Pinnacle's air discharge permit once it was issued by B.C.'s Ministry of Environment on Dec. 17, 2014. The group filed the necessary paperwork on Jan. 10.
Some provincial air quality monitoring is expected and should be happening soon, according to Coape-Arnold.
“We're getting snippets of information from the (Environment) ministry about what type of monitoring will occur,” he said. “Monitoring was supposed to begin in November.
“We invited ministry staff to Lavington to talk about it two weeks back but because an appeal is in progress, staff couldn't attend."
“We're not getting good information from the ministry. It's about what they're going to measure, how they're going to measure and where they're going to measure.”
As part of its permit, Pinnacle is supposed to publish stack testing data on its website within 90 days of commencement of operations, Coape-Arnold said.
“We're waiting for that.”
Meanwhile, the Lavington appeal is also affecting the District of Coldstream.
Mayor Jim Garlick said a request for the Ministry of Environment to supply information about its monitoring plans was rejected due to the Lavington residents' appeal.
Garlick said council has received a report on the cost to the district of buying and setting up air quality monitoring equipment in Lavington.
“The initial information is it would cost $60,000,” said Garlick, adding that the matter will be examined more closely.
He said the district may consider hiring a company to do monitoring “once in a while.”
