Malahat-owned quarry expansion a study in overlapping interests

A quarry on the west side of the Saanich Inlet has become the source of conflict between the owner, Malahat Nation, and neighbours who are worried that a proposed expansion to the quarry won’t have adequate environmental oversight, and that it won’t consider cumulative effects on marine life.

The Malahat Nation has applied to expand the quarry, as well as the foreshore lease where a small dock is used to transport rock and fill to and from the quarry. Their application is under the province’s threshold that triggers an environmental assessment, and even though the nation’s economic development company has followed all the rules for public notification, hardly anyone knew what was happening until this summer.

Like Maureen Alexander who lives right near the quarry. She found out by chance this summer when, walking to the highway from her home on Mill Bay Road, she was stunned by the sight of a bare mountainside, where there used to be thick forest. Standing on the side of the highway, she noticed a small sign notifying the public of the expansion application.

“Literally I was the only one that had a clue that this was going on,” Alexander said.

Cumulative impacts could be missed by repeated small expansions

The Bamberton quarry is just south of Mill Bay on the west side of the Saanich Inlet. Malahat bought the 525-acre section of land that includes the quarry, a former BC Cement operation, in 2017 with a mortgage.

The land is part of current treaty negotiations, and Malahat expects the land to be transferred to them when the treaty is eventually ratified, but the process “is taking an inordinate amount of time,” the nation said in a letter about the expansion. In the meantime, Malahat says it needs cash flow from the quarry to cover mortgage payments.

The Malahat Investment Corporation estimates there is enough material in the quarry for about 30 years of work. After that, the land will be used as part of Malahat’s nation-rebuilding efforts, a mixture of recreation, residential, industry, tourism, and traditional uses based on the needs of Malahat members.

To extract all that rock in the next 30 years, the company applied in 2019 to expand the quarry nearly by half—partly in depth and partly by spreading out to adjacent sites. It filed a separate application to expand its foreshore lease to 100 metres into the Saanich Inlet to give deep water access to barges, a move it says was recommended by the province.

There has been little to no consultation and there’s no requirement for an environmental assessment, because the expansion “doesn’t meet the threshold,” according to the Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Low Carbon Innovation.

After Alexander saw the sign by the highway about the proposed expansion, she dug around and found that the quarry had been expanded in 2016, with virtually no notice, and that they’d applied to expand again in 2019.

The last application is still in process, and again there has been scant effort to engage the public. An advertisement in the Goldstream Gazette newspaper, which doesn’t get delivered to Mill Bay, satisfied provincial requirements.

Alexander launched into action and got the attention of the Saanich Inlet Protection Society (SIPS), which filed a formal application to have the project undergo an environmental assessment in early November. The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy agreed to evaluate the project to see if it should have an environmental review. That process is now underway.

Alexander is concerned about cumulative effects of these repeated expansions—each under the threshold that triggers an environmental assessment. Project expansions that ask for less than 250,000 tonnes of quarried goods in a year, and less than a 50% increase in land disturbance, do not automatically require an environmental review, according to provincial law.

“It's exponential because you start with this area and they ask for a 47% increase, then they ask for another increase—but of course even though you ask for another 47%, the area is already bigger because you've already expanded it,” she said.

“It's conceivable that they could quarry the whole 500-acre mountain site and never trigger an environmental assessment.”

Separately, the quarry has been receiving soil infill for two years, approved by the Cowichan Valley Regional District. The SIPS has asked for this to be included in the environmental assessment, saying it’s part of the cumulative effects on the area. The permit issued by the regional district allows for residential-grade fill, that is, not contaminated. But dealing with contaminated fill is listed as a potential activity in the foreshore expansion application, so SIPS, Alexander, and others are worried.

Indigenous consultation shows overlapping interests

When the environment ministry agreed to review the expansion request it wrote to eleven neighbouring First Nations to ask for input.

Malahat is a nation on its own, but is also part of W̱SÁNEĆ (wh-say-nuch) Nation along with four other nations: Tsartlip, Tsawout, Tseycum, and Pauquachin.

Tsartlip (sart-lip) wrote a letter strongly opposing the foreshore and quarry expansions, outlining the impact to their traditional territory that includes Bamberton and the Saanich Inlet. They have asked for capacity funding to support their meaningful participation in consultation, and request that the full environmental assessment include a cumulative effects study. Tsawout (say-out) First Nation also responded specifically opposing the foreshore expansion.

On the west side of the Inlet, Ts'uubaa-asatx Nation (tsoo-bah-seht), formerly known as Lake Cowichan First Nation, said it has “no comment” on the Bamberton projects. The other eight nations have not yet responded in writing to the Environmental Assessment office.

For its part, Malahat says the Bamberton projects go much further than just earning money from the quarry.

“These lands are a core part of our vision to restore some small part of the lands that were taken from us through colonization and, in particular, the granting of a huge part of our land to the E&N Railway Company to facilitate the building of the now defunct E&N Railway,” Malahat elected leaders wrote in a letter responding to calls for an environmental review.

“As a result of this grant, we have had to watch as private landowners, businesses, and forestry companies directly benefited from our lands while most in our community struggled in poverty.”

In the letter the nation criticizes SIPS’ argument as being speculative. Any future expansion will be subject to the current provincial regulation, it said, reiterating that Malahat has followed all provincial legislation, and that a delay to the quarry operations could gravely affect its ability to keep paying the mortgage on the property.