Editor:
This letter was sent to Gibsons Mayor Bill Beamish and council.
On July 13, the Office of Information and Privacy Commissioner ordered the Town of Gibsons to release 82 pages of peer review documents regarding The George project, to the GABC Society.
We received the documents on Aug. 25 and have since reviewed them. The peer reviews contain unequivocal proof that the assertions we’ve made (since 2014) about the risks associated with The George are correct. In fact, the scathing reviews of the developer’s plans by the Town’s expert consultants only amplify our concerns.
The Town’s experts repeatedly assert that proposed excavations, dredging, remediation, pile-driving and construction methods to develop The George could perforate Gibsons Aquifer, result in uncontrollable leaks, loss and/or contamination of the community drinking water supply. The risk is very high.
We recognize that this is a complex site and the public, staff and council may not fully understand all of the technical aspects of the proposed development. This is exactly why the Town hired expert hydrogeologists and geotechnical engineers to ensure due diligence on this project in 2014. And it’s precisely why it is so troubling that our aquifer experts stopped peer reviewing this project four months prior to the issuance of the DPA 1, 2 and 9 development permits (July 31, 2017).
Make no mistake, the scope of works permitted in the DPA 1, 2 and 9 permits issued to the developer in August 2017 include all of the activities described above.
Further, it now appears that the Town withheld these damning reports so that GABC could not cite these expert opinions in our appeal to the Environmental Appeal Board of BC (EMA-2017-10) and our petition for judicial review of the permits in the BC Supreme Court (2018).
Please let us know what steps Gibsons council will take to address these serious issues and by when.
Suzanne Senger, President, GABC Society
