Photo: Google Street View

Blind Bay Resort

A Shuswap company has been hit with close to $60,000 in fines for failing to maintain a facility which saw numerous sewage discharges between November 2022 and May 2024.

According to a Ministry of Environment enforcement report, Jaydan Ventures Inc. was managing a wastewater system at Blind Bay Resort. However, there were numerous instances of sewage not being properly treated, causing potential harm to people and the environment.

The report states Jayden “failed to monitor the receiving environment as it discharged effluent to the ground."

Monitoring where waste is discharged into the water is crucial to ensuring the efficiency of treatment, says the report. The ministry said without the monitoring data it's unable to assess the extent and severity of the impact of on-going quality exceedances and failure of the ground disposal field.

"Failing to monitor undermines the Ministry’s ability to protect human health and the environment and creates a risk of harm to the environment and human health and safety," reads the report.

The report says the site is located within 430 meters of Shuswap Lake, a popular site for recreational activity.

The BC Ministry of Health states, "Because of the large number of diseases and parasites which are spread in animal and human feces, no amount of fecal bacteria are acceptable. The absence of receiving environment monitoring at minimum poses a risk of harm to human health as there is a potential for effluent impacted groundwater to seep into Shuswap Lake."

There are also several groundwater wells within 400 metres of the disposal field – two of which were designated for "private domestic water supply." The close proximity of these wells means the disposal fields pose a risk of contaminating drinking water through sewage impacted groundwater.

“In conjunction with the exceedances of effluent quality requirements, the failure to monitor the receiving environment poses a medium potential for adverse effects," reads the report.

The ministry said the pollution is a "very serious threat to human health" and "undermines the basic integrity of the overarching regulatory regime."

Several tests at the site showed sewage far in excess of pollution limits numerous times, including one test that showed fecal coliforms, which includes E. coli, measured at almost 5,000 times provincial limits.

The report says Jayden Ventures stated it had tried to transfer registration of the facility to the property strata which formed in 2021. Jayden Ventures argued the strata failed to take over the facility and that the strata had locked them out of the property.

However, the report says Jaydan didn't provide proof to support those claims and was held responsible for the situation by the ministry.

Jayden Venture has 30 days from when the $58,900 fine was issued on Nov. 12 to file an appeal.

To read the penalty of assessment report, click here.

To read the determination of administrative penalty report, click here.