(Submitted photo, Oct. 7, 2025)
Pollution prevention order targets ‘unauthorized’ waste dump site on Cowichan Tribes reserve
Leachate is migrating via groundwater into the Cowichan River, says consultant report
A member of Cowichan Tribes has received a pollution prevention order that cites large-scale unauthorized dumping of waste material on the reserve, a review of government documents reveals.
The Ministry of Environment order pertains to three lots on Indian Road just above the Cowichan River near Allenby Road Bridge where dumped waste is “likely to release substances that will cause pollution.”
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.
James Anthony Peter is ordered to immediately stop dumping waste at the site. He is also required to hire a professional to develop a site pollution prevention and remediation plan that identifies options, including “full removal or engineered closure” of the site.
(Submitted photo, Oct. 7, 2025)
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.
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.
Peter also goes by the name, Abby or Abbey, according to court records.
Ministry of Environment spokesman David Karn said Monday: "This is an ongoing compliance and enforcement file, and no further information can be shared at this time."
Cowichan Tribes and Cowichan Valley MLA Debra Toporowski (a Cowichan Tribes member and former councillor) have been asked to comment.
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. In a front-page article in the Cowichan News Leader Pictorial in July 2013, reporter Peter Rusland reported on “toxic smoke” from a debris fire on the same reserve.
(BC Ministry of Environment)
In 2020, Tribes issued a public warning regarding dumping on reserve land: https://www.cowichanvalleycitizen.com/news/cowichan-tribes-warns-against-gravel-removal-and-dumping-waste-on-its-land-809555
In August 2023, sixmountains.ca reported the dumping of large amounts of material on land within the Cowichan Tribes reserve on Tzouhalem Road, near Cowichan Bay.
In April 2024, Chief Cindy Daniels told sixmountains.ca that a cease-and-desist order had been issued at the site.
Cowichan Tribes lands department did issue a permit “for a certain number of loads,” but that number was exceeded, Daniels said.
(Dump site on Cowichan Tribes reserve on Tzouhalem Road, Mar. 12, 2024.)
The property in question is within reserve boundaries, but involves a certificate of possession, which Cowichan Tribes describes as “documentary evidence of a First Nation member's lawful possession of Reserve lands pursuant to the Indian Act.”
Owner of the certificate of possession is “entitled to the use of the land, and rights are transferrable by sale or bequeath,” according to the Tribes website.
(Note, this article was published on Oct. 25, 2025. It was updated on Oct. 27, 2025.)
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