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Editorial: JdF residents facing big issues

Forced sale of homes and composting facility get rise from Juan de Fuca residents
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Editorial cartoon for December 10

The residents who live west of Sooke are facing a couple of huge issues. In Jordan River the people who have made their homes there are being asked to sell out to BC Hydro. The reason - the Jordan River dam is unstable and if an earthquake of magnitude 9 or more hit, the town would be wiped out because studies show the dam would fail.

Eleven homes, and a number of other premises are at risk. Hydro is offering them fair market value plus 5 per cent. What they don’t get is now that they have declared the area at risk, the house values have dropped to next to nothing. Not a good deal in any way shape or form. It doesn’t appear to be about risk it appears to be about liability. Why can’t they build a new dam in front of the old one to prevent it from rattling apart in the event of a huge earthquake. It does supply power to more than 30 per cent of the Island. Isn’t that reason enough? It just doesn’t make sense in the bigger scale of things. The people who live in Jordan River should be “allowed” to live out their days in their homes, knowing the risks.

On another note, the residents around the Shirley area gave a big thumbs down to a proposal to put in a composting facility near Sandcut Beach. Of course no one wants a composting facility anywhere near them. But, one does have to go somewhere. The CRD has stated that no kitchen scraps can go into garbage destined for the Hartland Landfill. So, where is it supposed to go? Not everyone has a compost pile or digester. Why would the brains at the CRD put a policy into place without first getting all of their ducks in a row? It’s putting the cart before the horse and it is going to fail. They tried it in Victoria and Oak Bay and all the kitchen waste went straight to Hartland because they hadn’t worked out the finer details. This is bureaucracy at its worst. Get the details together then institute the policy — that’s common sense.