Neighbours cry foul as waste dumped on farmland near Cultus Lake

The trucks began rolling into Columbia Valley in early spring, bits of garbage and an awful stench trailing behind them.

At first, residents, who value their privacy and appreciate the difficulties presented by the rocky soil on Cultus Lake’s southern shore, turned a blind eye to the piles accumulating in their neighbour’s field. He told them he was trying to improve his land by applying compost.

It didn’t take long for the goodwill to run out, said Darcy Henderson, who walks her dog near the field every day.

Kids couldn’t play outside because of the smell. The wind picked up tiny pieces of plastic and carried them across the valley. Then, someone noticed the trucks, sometimes 20 a day, were labelled with the name of a Lower Mainland gypsum company, and people began to question the safety of the community’s drinking water.

“Dump and go. Dump and go. Dump and go,” recalled Taryn Dixon, the Fraser Valley Regional District director for the Columbia Valley area. “It didn’t stop.”