It was just one meeting and I wasn’t going to go. I arrived late and stood at the back to avoid being pulled into the controversy. I held my hands tight so to resist the urge to step forward and volunteer.
My life was already too full. This news of a biofuel plant was inconvenient timing. I already had two small businesses struggling to recover after Covid and I was entering what should be my busy season. I didn’t need anything to distract me from my job at the moment.
But this news was unsettling. A company called Andion which had no Canadian track record in waste management was partnering with our First Nations band to build a plant to covert green waste to natural gas. They call it biofuel and their claim was this technology is clean waste conversion and it’s revolutionary. Problem was, the proposed site was not zoned industrial. It was First Nations land reserve, waterfront property less than 2 kms from my home, more than 3600 homes and several elementary schools with plenty more residences south of the border.
After the meeting I felt compelled to share with the organizers that I had social media experience. That’s how it all started.
A week later I woke up and started my work day. I had a very busy day and I wasn’t expecting that day to be derailed. I googled biofuel. A flood of unsettling information filled my computer.
The Headlines:
Biofuel plant explodes in UK.
Biofuel cause of raucous air and poor air quality leading to respiratory illness near San Diego.
Plant emissions exposure linked to cancer in Texas.
Biofuel plant explosion kills two in north India.
Explosion in eastern Canada leaves several injured.
Clean waste management not so clean after all.
By the evening I had tossed my workday agenda and created a website to compile all the data to share it with other residents. I called it the Clean Air Alliance and posted the data at www.nobiofuel.ca.
From there we formed a grassroots group. Everyone pitched in wherever their skill-set was needed. Nav had experience with international trade, Amanda with real estate and land zoning, Mark with political lobbying, Amy with branding and social media and Jennifer with communications and public relations. More would join with the same desire. To get answers and stand in solidarity.
You see, part of the problem was that as a group we were behind the eight ball.
This project was already four years in the works. Andion approached Harley Chappell, the Semiahmoo band leader, in 2019 with the scheme to build Canada’s first biofuel plant using their technology. The location was intentional; less red tape, less governance and environmental stipulations. Smooth sailing.
During Covid, while we were following strict bylaws with respect to social distancing and travel, Chappell and his leadership were on a familiarization tour of Andions plant in Italy. All expenses paid.
So when it was leaked that the project was set to break ground that January 2024 it was an extreme surprise to the thousands of residents who live in the air patterns of the proposed plant.
No environmental impact assessment, no community consultation, no formal announcements appropriate for a project of this size. In fact, it seemed to be the project was intentionally low key, quietly proceeding with the knowledge of some government agencies and even local political leaders. Our grassroots group only formed after our first member was tipped off about the project by a diligent reader of the local newspaper (the Peace Arch News). Buried deep in the classified section was a short notice listing the chemicals which the plant would emit:
Nitrogen Dioxide
Hydrogen Sulphide
Sulphur Dioxide
VOC’s
Ammonia
No big deal. Well within the allowable emissions for a plant of this kind.
Only caveat, those plants must run in optimal conditions (and they never do) and be located at least 10km away from residential areas (which this plant was not) and be situated away from waterways (this plant was proposed to be built less than 500m from a protected stream which feeds into White Rock beach, Drayton Harbour and Boundary Bay.)
We started out saying right idea, wrong location: until we realized it wasn’t the right idea at all. These plants were prime examples of greenwashing. The technology is flawed. It requires significant green waste to even convert to a useable amount of natural gas. Yet, green waste isn’t so simple. Green waste is never truly green. We think of it as apple cores and food scraps when in fact it’s plenty of plastics (when burned cause cancer), restaurant oils and carcinogens. Even the green of the waste gives off gas emissions that are harmful as a byproduct of decomposition. That’s why usually this all takes place far away from residential areas.
Breathe. We settled on this campaign message because that's what we all wanted. Clean air to breathe. Beyond the odour (smells worse than rotten eggs), the alarming gas plumes and the increased traffic at an already busy international border crossing, the plant was expected to emit unsafe levels of Hydrogen Sulphide which exposure is linked to respiratory disease and cancer for residents living within 5 km of the plant. My parents live across the street. I was worried.
We kicked into action. Created a Facebook group, hung banners, contacted the media, and started planning a rally to oppose the plant. Momentum was strong. We attended both cities council meetings with a formal delegation. Behind the scenes was activity straight out of a movie.
Late at night I would get Facebook messages saying I have confidential information for you. At one point, I was handed documents that proved a bribery scheme. Members of government staff would call and tip us off that a secret meeting was held or going to be held so we should plan a protest. Many behind closed doors meetings took place with no record of the minutes. Remember this project was publicly funded with 14.4 million in federal money. I was told by numerous people about Chappells lifestyle change. Trips, cars, new girlfriend but never once would he consult with our community even after repeated attempts to invite Chappell and his leadership to a town hall meeting with our group. What did we want? Answers. That’s all. To questions like: How is this repulsive plant going to affect our health and our lives?
Then we met JR*. He first showed up in an open chat on our Facebook group. Always antagonizing people to fear and anger. Even causing such a rift online that a police report was made naming him by another commentor. His goal was never to seek the truth. It was disruption. Our group attempted to work with JR at first opting to utilize his promised skill of investigation into Andion Global. When his promises failed over and over and he suggested we antagonize them with false findings one by one our group became very uncomfortable about working with JR. Our once productive meetings now with JR’s participation were dominated by ramblings where he would hold the zoom call hostage for 45 mins on a rant. When he demanded to take over the social media pages and website, it became clear that we could not work with him to oppose this project. Our work styles and even our goals were not aligned. We wanted to stop this unhealthy plant from being built to protect South Surrey & White Rock. He wanted to put an end to natural gas as means of heating and cookng in your home. Not our goal at all. In fact, many of us support alternative sources of energy to electricity and see his agendas end as a possible means to higher electricity bills. JR does not like to be told no. He wants total control or nothing. So his response was to call me on Christmas Eve and tell me he was waging a libel lawsuit against me. No joke! After telling him he has no basis for this lawsuit and it was astonishing that he would choose Christmas Eve to share this news, I hung up and blocked his number from my phone. (*JR’s name has been changed to avoid any lawsuits from the re-telling of my personal story.)
In early January, we got the news that JR started his own group to oppose the plant. It was called The Clean Air Alliance. What!?! The same name as our group? Why! Oh, 💡 to confuse people and ride on the coattails of our grassroots following. Everyone was confused, it slowed down our progress and intentionally directed media to JR himself. He started speaking as an expert on behalf of our community. This was bonkers!
A member of our group requested that he change the name of his group. We conceded that more ‘armies’ fighting on multiple fronts was certainly positive but please be distinct and unique in name. He refused, claiming he registered the name federally. He had not. We immediately trademarked the name.
Now in late January, we had delayed the ground breaking of the plant. This was a win. The environmental impact assessment was becoming a problem for Andion, who has now renamed as Taurus and has had a leadership shake up. We found out that the plant would need to be fortified with 40-50 foot deep supports all throughout the foundation of the structure. This kind of engineering would mean choking a protected stream, the little Campbell River, which has been protected for over 50 years. It’s also a feeder stream to the ocean. The engineering is shakey proving this boggy, oceanfront land is no place for an industrial plant.
We got a tip that the primary funding office, Natural Resources Canada (pledging 14.4 million), was re-considering the project due to the name change by Andion to Taurus. We decided this was our opportunity to one-two punch with all the data we found about air quality, explosion risk and environmental impact. We motivated our community to send a tsunami of emails to the office of Johnathan Wilkinson at Natural Resources Canada. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in that office the week we email bombed them. But it worked. Within a month we received word that the funding was suspended until a review of the environmental impact could be made. Eventually, the funding was completely pulled. That’s where the story ends.
Are you disappointed? Oh, I’m sorry. I would have loved to have given you this amazing 'movie-style' ending where the plant is publicly declared as cancelled, but sadly not. After all that hard work, late nights, meetings, delegations, protests, a rally… it all just went dark. No one made a formal announcement. Metro Vancouver never rubber stamped their air quality permit - in fact it still remains active with no deadline or expiry date whatsoever. This is a permit which would allow Taurus to pollute… LEGALLY. Data used to show emissions thresholds are now outdated. Yet Metro Vancouver continues to hold the application as active.
Chappell never called a press conference, Taurus never issued a press release or ever called any members of our group to say the project is off. We just sit in limbo praying the pulled funding was enough to scatter their project to another community. If that’s your town, call me! (We would be happy to help).
We were just regular people thrown into a messy big corp-government conspiracy and now we’re here without answers, kinda on the other side, possibly having won a massive war against a Goliath of an enemy.
What did I learn from this fiasco?
One voice is a whisper, but thousands of voices raise that whisper to shouting. There were times I believed we were too insignificant to win this. I contemplated listing my house for sale several times. A house we built and we’ve raised up our children in now who are now 12 and 16 years old. I'm so glad I didnt.
Big business is becoming too strong and government leaders are too uncomfortable to do the right thing. This is a dangerous combination.
We have let down our first peoples. I have lived in the White Rock area for 35 years and I knew very little about the Semiahmoo band before this. I never knew that White Rock dumped garbage on their lands (liberally used as a dump by WR in the 70’ and 80’s) and I never knew that for years and through Covid the band did not have potable running water because White Rock cut them off. Surrey restored water service only recently. I also didn’t fully understand the 99 year leaseholds and the fact that the band negotiates with the crown (like the King...King Charles!) for these leases and not the Canadian government. The land is also not governed by Canadian laws; the air space or the actual land is theirs to do with whatever they please and usually that is in the best interests of the land, but not in this case. First Nations bands have their own charter. We generally hold the belief that this charter has respect and love for the land, yet what happens when a big corp moves in promising prosperity and self sufficiency to a community that hasn’t even had drinking water from their taps for years?
Lastly, I have learned that I love living here. I love the people in my neighbourhood. I love the Campbell River and the bay it feeds into. I love the blue skies when the rain clouds part and I love protecting it all, so that means one day I may pursue leadership. I have no idea how that will play out. But I’ve learned that good people are needed in positions of power. So I am standing up.
Sincerely, Suzanne
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