Burnaby residents push back against proposed compost facility in local park

The City of Burnaby is planning to put an organic waste recycling plant facility in part of Fraser Foreshore Park and that’s not sitting well with local residents.

But if the project goes forward, it would impact eight hectares of forest – swamp – and marsh.

Some Burnaby residents came together to share their concerns about the project, which would be next to a waste-to-energy plant.

“Of course, we do need to compost our waste and there are some potential beneficial spinoffs. But my concern really was why put it in Parkland? Why do they want to take land away from a dedicated city park and turn that into an basically what’s going to be an industrial facility?” asked Paul Cipywnyk, president of the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers Society.

City of Burnaby staff call it the Green Recycling Organic Waste facility, or GROW, and a staff report says it would process up to 150,000 tons of waste from around the region every year. The City says GROW is planned as a “fully enclosed” facility that would convert organic waster into high-quality soil for residents, community gardeners and local farmers to use.

“The GROW facility’s process involves the break-down of organic waste in an oxygen-deficient environment, which also create biogas as a byproduct (primarily methane),” the City says. “This methane is captured and upgraded to be used as a renewable substitute for fossil-based natural gas.”

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Cipywnyk doesn’t disagree with the merits of the GROW facility, but he says it needs to be put somewhere else.

“This part of the Foreshore Park is the largest area. If we walk a little bit further down this way, we arrive at a meadow which is designated as an ecologically sensitive area. I have photographed hawks, owls, flickers, eagles, all sorts of wildlife in this area,” said Cipywnyk.

The staff report says the city chose this site after reviewing all it’s other properties and it plans to compensate for the loss of habitat by improving other wetland sites in the city.

It says that will make three times more habitat area overall. But Cipywnyk isn’t convinced by that.

“Compensation is not as easy as it sounds. And can you take away habitat in one area and compensate that with somewhere else – and have similar results while this area will still be gone?”

The City of Burnaby didn’t respond to requests from CityNews for comment, but is looking for public feedback this month.