There will be no Sunshine Coast, white sturgeon caviar hitting the international market this year.
At the District of Sechelt's final session Wednesday night before taking their summer break, council decided not to adopt Target Marine's application for a processing plant and returned it to staff because they felt too many questions remained unanswered.
"I'm glad we're maybe taking a step back. We have more questions with less answers," Coun. Darren Inkster said.
A motion to table the decision failed as the adoption process began with councillors Inkster, Warren Allan and Keith Thirkell voting in favour. Mayor Cam Reid and councillors Ed Steeves, Mike Shanks and Barry Poole voted the motion down.
Ray Parfitt, planning director for the District said in his opening report that staff felt Target Marine had met the conditions imposed on them and that staff agreed with the application being adopted and moving forward, but in the end it was given right back to them.
Steeves said there were still a lot of questions that needed answering and asked that staff go back and look at them. Shanks said that since council received copies of the original application made by Target, perhaps many of the concerns and questions could be answered with efficiency.
Reid asked all councillors to get their questions to staff along with those raised by the public and asked staff to compile a report to bring back to council in September.
Questions and concerns include: noise from the hatchery, explaining the bylaw's definition of fish processing, increased bear activity due to composting of offal on site, ice and refrigeration making and its potential for noise, impact on the inlet, what tonnage of offal and compost will happen at the processing plant and what exactly Target will be processing, sturgeon only or other fish too. Following the council meeting, Justin Henry, manager for Target Marine Products, said, "We've answered all of these questions."
Thirkell, who is a nearby resident to Target, said that what he thought had been the sound of running water all these years, he now knows is the sound of the large fans that operate at the hatchery around the clock. He also echoed concerns of resident Mark Cameron who said that bear activity has increased in the area and wondered aloud if the composting on site had anything to do with it.
Cameron is a North Vancouver resident who owns three lots on Naylor Road with his wife. He plans to build a retirement home there and is worried about noise, bears and potential smell from Target. He said that over the years of spending weekends on their property, the Camerons have gone from seeing the occasional bear to one every weekend. He said they have to sit outside with a bear banger at the ready and watch their grandchildren play in the sand at all times.
Cameron also said that noise from the hatchery fans is constant and that on calm, quiet nights, it sounds even louder. "They get to go home after eight or 10 hours. We have the noise 24- seven," Cameron said.
For his part, Henry has made modifications to the buildings that house the fans and to machinery that is necessary to keep operations at the hatchery running, which includes keeping thousands of fish healthy and growing. He said Target Marine has done what it can to minimize the noise and is within bylaw expectations.
Henry also said the amount of offal being composted on site will be less than there has ever been with switching to sturgeon because the quantity will be lower. He said that there is no smell now with the composting and there won't be in the future either.
Henry said that almost 99 per cent of the water being used is recirculated, thus reducing the volume of water that the hatchery uses overall. After solids are removed and sent to a septic tank, ammonia and carbon dioxide are removed through a system that uses live organisms that naturally consume them. Water quality is monitored continuously and Henry is confident that they are in no way polluting the inlet.
Henry said he does not know what will happen now as he takes council's decision back to the owners and board at Target Marine. There are roughly 1,700 female white sturgeon that are nearly ready for harvest and whose roe will go to waste for 2008.
