Land Commission orders end to dumping on former sawmill site in Kelowna

Owners of the former Russo Sawmill site, which has been a Kelowna eyesore for decades, have been ordered by the Agricultural Land Commission to stop dumping waste materials on the site. On Feb. 15, the commission put a stop work order on a property on ALR land at 1040 Old Vernon Road near the north end of Kelowna, which is one of the four properties that make up the sawmill site. An estimated 20 loads of asphalt and about 300 loads of crushed concrete had been dumped on the site and equipment stored there, Dave Birchmore, compliance and enforcement supervisor for the commission, told iNFOnews.ca. Giovanni Russo was a logger and railway worker who started a small sawmill on the site in the late 1940s to produce railway ties, according to a post on the Kelowna Canadian Italian Club website. It doesn’t say how long the Russos remained there but a 2000 City of Kelowna report says the sawmill covered about one hectare in 1972 when the Agricultural Land Reserve was created. READ MORE:Here’s what’s been leaching from a Kelowna fruit packing plant for years https://infotel.ca/newsitem/heres-whats-been-leaching-from-a-kelowna-fruit-packing-plant-for-years/it103220 That was at 982 Old Vernon Road, next to the site where the stop work order was issued. There are two other properties on either side of those lots at the bend where Old Vernon Road turns north towards Kelowna Airport. In 1985, the sawmill operation was given permission to expand to one of its neighbouring lots and cover a total of 1.7 ha. In 1998, an Agricultural Land Commission inspection, conducted following complaints, found that non-farm uses like storage and processing of waste material and pallet recycling had expanded even further. In 1999 the operation was ordered to revert to the 1985 boundaries. By 2000 the “construction material waste operation” had expanded into all four lots. In 2017, the owners applied to the Agricultural Land Commission for permission to “operate a recycling facility for construction and demolition waste, specifically concrete and wood on the subject property.” That was denied. A report to Kelowna’s Agricultural Advisory Commission in 2017 said that 91% of the 1040 Old Vernon Road property could be improved to Class 3 agricultural land at a cost of more than $1 million. The early reports had said that the demolition of building materials could contain chemicals from glues and preservatives. The owners have 30 days to appeal the stop work order, during which time they are not supposed to dump any more material on the site. To contact a reporter for this story, email Rob Munro mailto:rmunro@infonews.ca  or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor mailto:news@infonews.ca . You can also submit http://tips@infonews.ca photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom mailto:tips@infonews.ca  and be entered to win a monthly prize draw. We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here https://infotel.ca/newsletter .