(Submitted photo, Oct. 7, 2025)
Dump truck driver says ‘everything and anything’ went into waste site on Cowichan Tribes reserve
A dump truck driver who hauled waste to the Cowichan Tribes reserve on Indian Road in North Cowichan says the site accepted all manner of debris.
“We hauled lots of stuff into that site,” the driver, who asked not to be named, told sixmountains.ca.
“Lots of demolition material, lots of just straight garbage, household goods, everything and anything.”
Some of that waste included excavated material out of the Victoria area “because they’re always looking for a place to put it when they’re doing new construction sites,” he said.
“That material has to go somewhere and it often goes over the Malahat to various locations….”
The trucker, now retired, said he delivered waste to the site for about two years around 2020. “I can’t tell you for sure when it all started, but it looked to me like the site was like that for a long time.”
He did not question his employer's decision to dump waste at the site.
(Submitted photo, Oct. 7, 2025)
A front-page article in the Cowichan News Leader Pictorial on July 3, 2013, reported “toxic smoke” coming from a debris fire on the same reserve, filling downtown Duncan for several days.
Read the article: https://issuu.com/blackpress/docs/i20130703070046316
On July 12, 2013, the Pictorial reported that the federal government had ordered the site to be cleared and remediated. The government added there were no registered leases for a commercial landfill on the site.
(2013 Pictorial photo courtesy of Black Press)
Twelve years later, the issue of waste dumping on the Indian Road reserve is back in the news.
James Anthony Peter, a member of Cowichan Tribes, has received a pollution prevention order that cites large-scale unauthorized dumping of waste material on the reserve, government documents reveal.
The Ministry of Environment order pertains to three lots at 5544 Indian Road just above the Cowichan River near Allenby Road Bridge where dumped waste is “likely to release substances that will cause pollution.”
The trucker interviewed by sixmountains.ca noted there are residences below the three sites next to the Cowichan River.
(Submitted photo, Oct. 7, 2025)
The unauthorized waste — construction and demolition debris, residential waste, derelict RV trailers, plastics, metals, and other “unmanaged materials” — violates the Environmental Management Act, says the order dated October 2.
Peter is ordered to immediately stop dumping waste at the site. He is also required to hire a professional to develop a pollution prevention and remediation plan that identifies options, including “full removal or engineered closure” of the site.
The plan must be submitted to the province for review and approval by November 17.
A person who fails to comply with a pollution prevention order is liable upon conviction to a fine of up to $300,000 or up to six months in prison, or both.
A report by consultant Sperling Hansen Associates in November 2023 estimated the waste exceeded 290,000 cubic meters.
About 40 per cent involved construction and demolition waste, 25 per cent imported soil (some containing elevated concentrations of copper and zinc), 20 per cent wood and land-clearing debris, and smaller volumes of items such as broken concrete, tires, and household garbage.
“These materials are known to release substances of concern,” the report said, including heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, copper, iron, lead, manganese and zinc, hydrocarbons and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and volatile organic compounds.
The report also said the site is producing leachate, most of it migrating via groundwater toward the Cowichan River. The leachate is expected to “alter groundwater chemistry, mobilize metals, and potentially impact riparian habitat and a downgradient residential well.”
A second consultant report by Aura Health and Safety Corporation in April 2022 confirmed the presence of small amounts of waste asbestos and lead-containing paint at the dump site.
The three lots are legally considered Cowichan Tribes reserve land, the order says. Historically, the Peter family claimed the land but did not follow through with the process to be granted a certificate of possession for the lots.
(BC Ministry of Environment)
While Cowichan Tribes considers the three lots as land to which the Peter family has access, the family does not control its resources, the order says.
Ministry of Environment spokesman David Karn said: "This is an ongoing compliance and enforcement file, and no further information can be shared at this time."
The Crown entered a stay of proceedings last July 10 against Peter on two counts under the Environmental Management Act related to pollution and waste violations from 2019 to 2023.
Peter also goes by the name Abby, or Abbey, according to court records.
Cowichan Tribes and Cowichan Valley MLA Debra Toporowski (a Cowichan Tribes member and former councillor) have not responded to a request for comment from sixmountains.ca.
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— Larry Pynn, Nov. 3, 2025