Dear Editor,
I would like to address a rather immoral development practice that has been going on for several years now.
The City of Richmond is trying to promote a “greener” city, however, for the past few decades, developers have been tearing down houses, all in the name of new development.
These houses are demolished and the building material waste is removed within a day or so.
The drywall and other mixed hazardous wastes are presumably being shipped to the US, as mixed building/drywall materials are not allowed here in local landfills.
Not terribly “green,” but hey, it’s not in our back-yards. Right?
Shortly after the demolition, the soil is typically removed to a depth of approximately 3 feet.
The lot is then filled in with silt/clay.
The new owner is billed for any new topsoil/sod required.
The majority of Richmond is/was farmland at one point, which should have been ideal for backyard gardens and drainage.
This practice of filling in once rich arable land with silt makes it virtually impossible to do any backyard gardening, unless one is willing to pay top dollar to have the original soil returned.
After a heavy rainfall, most of the “silt” yards resemble a pond.
I don’t know why the City has made it illegal to dump waste/fill on farmland, yet it’s perfectly OK to fill residential lots with silt.
As an example, the old house on the corner of Moncton and No. 2 Road was razed, rich black soil excavated and then filled in immediately with silt.
One would be hard pressed to find even a few weeds growing on this silt.
It has been this way for months now.
There are many more examples across the city, just look at the excavations where houses once stood.
Perhaps the City of Richmond could look into this terrible practice, to make Richmond an “Island by Nature” city, rather than a “Silt-Bar by Developers” city.
Brian Bennett
Richmond
B.C.
