To the victor go the spoils. The soil spoils, that is.
The City of North Vancouver recently passed a motion to ask Metro Vancouver to help with the co-ordination of hauling soil, fill, and the spoil – generally defined as excavated dirt or material that can’t be reused – to and from construction sites.
“I saw recently as many as six trucks and ponies lined up on Third Street hill taking up the bike lane at six o’clock in the morning, and that was all to haul soil away from the improvements that are going in Moodyville,” said Coun. Rod Clark, who proposed the motion during council’s April 9 meeting. “That happened for a continuing period of time and … is happening quite often in the neighbourhood because there’s still soil being moved out of the site and also back in.”
All that trucking out of spoil – which includes the material that gets excavated during construction that can’t be reused – and trucking in of soil can be a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, Clark said, adding that construction sites on the North Shore often have their spoil shipped off to places like Squamish, Coquitlam, Langley, and farther due to local dump, fill, or soil recycling yards being near capacity.
And, he added, “that’s a long distance to be hauling usable soil because what happens when the concrete work is done and the foundation is in they do something called backfill, which means they need soil to come back in and backfill the excavation that still exists in spite of all the concrete,” he said.
Clark suggested a contractor at a construction or excavation site, for example, should be required to contact Metro for information on where the closest dump or fill site might be, adding that this would be more efficient, save money, and be better for the environment.
Mayor Darrell Mussatto, who is also a director at Metro Vancouver, noted it was a complex issue but said he would address the idea at Metro.
“As everybody knows, there’s not many sites left to dump soil or fill or spoils, and if it’s contaminated it has to go somewhere else anyway to be remediated,” Mussatto said. “I know the trucking companies would love to be able to dump their soil closer by, but there’s just not that opportunity.”
Council will also request staff enter into discussions with other North Shore municipalities and with Metro Vancouver about a potential partnership to establish a joint soil spoils operation.
“I think just asking staff to give us a bit of a report of the status of our current fill site, what their long-term plans are, and is there any opportunity to partner with other municipalities, I think is a good one,” Mussatto said.
