A local group of volunteers cleaned up thousands of kilograms of illegally-dumped garbage near Peachland this weekend.
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May 08, 2018 - 2:00 PM
PEACHLAND – The president of a local volunteer group had a frightening moment while helping remove more than 12 tonnes of garbage from the backcountry near Peachland this weekend.
Kane Blake is the president of the Okanagan Forest Task Force, a group that formed two years ago in Kelowna as a response to the shocking amount of garbage they were finding in the forests around the Okanagan.
Blake and around 30 task force volunteers along with local and regional government staff spent Saturday, May 5 and Sunday, May 6 cleaning a major dumpsite near Peachland.
Regional District Waste Reduction facilitator Rae Stewart says the dump site on Crown land was brought to the attention of authorities last fall when the Peachland Fire Department was dispatched to a blaze on a piece of uninhabited property adjacent to the site.
“Fire suppression activity in the area led to the discovery of the massive swath of debris, from abandoned appliances and hundreds of tires to vast piles of construction and renovation waste, household garbage, old vehicles, trailers and more,” Stewart says in a media release.
Used needles were found at a backcountry garbage dump.
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Volunteers also found dozens of used hypodermic needles and syringes.
“There were no caps on most of them,” Blake says. “We managed to half fill a five gallon bucket of just needles.”
Around halfway through Blake says he noticed one of his hands was bleeding.
“I took a big step back,” he says.
He says a doctor has since told him not to worry.
“It probably wasn’t from the needles,” he says. “It was a wake-up call though. This is why we have our morning safety meetings before every clean up.”
Over the two days, often working more than 12 hours each day, the crew filled four, 40-yard dumpsters with 12.21 metric tonnes of garbage. ABC Recycling hauled 9.5 tonnes of metal from the dumpsite.
“The sheer volume of material pulled out of the dumpsite on the weekend gives you an idea of the magnitude of the mess we were dealing with,” Stewart says. “Thank you to members of the Okanagan Forest Task Force, volunteers from Gorman Brothers Lumber, and a dozen plus private citizens from the District of Peachland and City of West Kelowna that heard about the event and showed up to assist.”
If you find any dump sites or littering you can report it using this online form.
Roughly 30 volunteers helped clean a backcountry garbage dump near Peachland last weekend.
Image Credit: FACEBOOK
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