Cities in the Peace must inform the region’s staff of any upcoming demolitions, in a move that comes as cities ramp up their removal of older buildings with asbestos and drop them off at regional landfills.
During the Peace River regional district’s solid waste committee meeting on July 31, the committee voted to require localities within the district to notify the district if they intend to demolish a building.
District staff said the heads-up is necessary, as the buildings are often taken down completely when they have asbestos, an insulator and flame retardant that was used in older buildings before its link to lung cancer was discovered.
After the buildings are demolished, cities deliver the remains to the district’s landfills and their crews must be prepared to deal with the carcinogen safely and appropriately.
Landfills have designated areas where asbestos is dropped off, and anything containing the material is buried six feet deep.
“Right now, we find out through the media, that there is something happening in an area, a building’s coming down – and we end up scrambling,” said Kari Bondaroff, the region’s general manager of environmental sciences.
“This is a proactive way for us to work with our member municipalities and neighbours.”
Staff recommended sending a letter to all municipalities who are members of the district, including Fort St John, Dawson Creek, and Tumbler Ridge, as well as neighbouring Indigenous communities asking them to inform the district of all approved demolition permits.
These permits would still be the city’s responsibility to issue, but its staff will now have the added task of informing the environmental science department at the district.
Regions who do not have formal demolition permit processes will be asked to create one in collaboration with the district.
Previously, the region was not seeing as many demolitions and the occasional pre-1990 building would go down – but the district said they are seeing more scraps from these projects as cities work to repair and modernize their infrastructure.
