The City of Richmond denied it is dumping raw sewage at its works yard on Sidaway Road, one of two sites that recently had its composting facilities shut down, after a worker there contracted Legionnaires' disease.
City spokesman Ted Townsend told the News there is no truth to accusations hazardous materials were being dumped into a ditch at the Sidaway location which converts soils collected from excavations, landscaping work, and some organic materials into soil used on city owned sites.
Earlier this week, the city confirmed a worker had contracted the illness - a form of pneumonia caused by a species of aerobic bacteria - and was hospitalized in late 2013.
The employee has yet to return to their job and the matter has become the subject of a WorkSafeBC inspection.
A report on the inspection, released Thursday after a meeting with the city staff, did not call for any action to be taken or even warrant an on-site visit.
The reason? According to the report, "Environmental testing for this specific agent (Legionella longbeachae), according to expert opinion, is not likely to be conclusive."
But the report also states that a number of other microbial agents have been found in composting operations in general that have significant health effects which produce allergy or flu-like symptoms.
WorkSafeBC said the city needs to safeguard workers by developing an exposure control plan that includes health monitoring, hygiene facilities and decontamination procedures when required.
In addition, workers should wear respirators (masks) when composting materials that can be aerosolized by jets of water or compressed air when cleaning equipment that may have become contaminated.
The city has already taken action to suspend operations at the Sidaway composting site, as well as a secondary one at the main works yard on Lynas Lane.
While the city denies any hazardous materials have been dumped at the Sidaway location, the News has obtained a photo of a vacuum truck belonging to Deltabased McRae's Environmental Services Ltd. - which specializes in handling hazardous materials - leaving the facility at 6711 Sidaway Road.
City spokesman Ted Townsend said the truck was a hydro vac pump that is used where regular excavators could damage underground utilities.
"They help clear out the excavation site, and the materials, which would be soils with probably a high amount of ground water, would then be taken to the Sidaway site for inclusion with all the other soils we get from various other excavations for treatment," he said.
Any excavations done around sewage is disposed of through the city's sewage system.
"It doesn't go to the Sidaway site," Townsend said, adding claims the News has received of sewage dumping there are "completely bogus."
The city has appealed WokSafeBC's assessment, questioning the origin of the worker's illness.
When the News contacted Ryan Boyce, president of CUPE Local 394, which represents the city's outside workers, to ask if he was concerned about his members, he provided a terse, "no comment."
