A massive, 1,700-person work camp paid for by B.C. taxpayers could be headed to the local landfill by the end of the year, a new report warns.
The accommodations were built to support construction of the Site C hydroelectric dam near Fort St. John in northeast B.C., which the province says is the largest public infrastructure project in B.C. history.
Opened in 2016 at a cost of $470 million for construction and eight years of operation, the camp includes a movie theatre, gymnasium, fitness centre, cafeteria and 21 three-storey dorms, each with about 80 rooms consisting of a bed and bathroom. Google reviews from people who’ve stayed there note a coffee shop and games room, outdoor fire pit and beer on tap at the bar.
Now, local leaders are trying to stop the camp from adding piles of waste to the local dump â a problem one sustainability expert says is all too common when buildings are demolished across British Columbia.
“It’s like a mini town, almost,” says Leonard Hiebert, chair of the Peace River Regional District (PRRD) where the camp is housed.Â
But that “town” won’t be needed as the dam is producing power and the site transitions from construction to operation, which will require far fewer workers. Once that happens, the camp will be replaced by a cultural centre, and B.C. Hydro is trying to figure out what to do with the unneeded accommodations before they go to waste.
Massive work camp opens in northeastern B.C.
News that the camp could be destined for a local landfill was first reported by Energetic City, a local news site in Fort St. John, during its coverage of a March 20 regional district meeting.
During that meeting, the PRRD board received a report from its environmental services department informing them that a contractor for B.C. Hydro had recently reached out asking about the sorting and storage capacity at the North Peace Landfill.
The report said that in total, the camp buildings make up 665,443 square feet along with “concrete slabs, asphalt and steel piles” associated with demolition work scheduled for later this year.
“It totally caught me off guard,” said PRRD director Brad Sperling, who represents the area that includes the dam and dump where the camp could be disposed of, at the meeting.Â
“This is just totally wrong.”
Other directors expressed similar surprise, as well as concern over the costs associated with the massive amount of materials which would fill up the landfill far sooner than planned, taking years off of its life.
Site C spokesperson Greg Alexis says it is true that the hope has always been to find a new use for the work camp, but so far, they have not been successful.
As a result, he said, preliminary work is being done to find out what other options are in place, including recycling and disposing of the buildings locally.
He said over the last two years, B.C. Hydro has been reaching out to groups, including First Nations, government agencies and private companies to see if anyone was interested in acquiring some or all of the accommodations, but “ultimately, right now, we don’t have any organizations that have a firm interest.”
Timelapse shows massive Site C dam reservoir being filled
The camp is being used into the summer, he said, and “our goal still remains to find an organization or organizations that want to acquire the camp or parts of it, and that’s going to continue right up until the very end.”
Most of the furniture and equipment in the camp, he said, was being repurposed, but the major challenge is the buildings themselves.
Part of the problem, he said, is the sheer size: moving just one of the 21 dormitories, he said, would require “almost 30 flatbed trucks,” plus the cost and time associated with disassembling and reassembling them and, in some cases, improving them to meet local building codes.
He said while there had been a couple dozen organizations that had expressed interest in the facilities, after taking a closer look, they found they did not meet their needs.
“We’ve heard, too, in some cases it’s more cost effective for an organization to go directly to a supplier and order their own purpose-built facility,” he said.
Asked about the cost of acquiring camp buildings, he said that would be negotiated with anyone who expressed interest.
For Glyn Lewis, the possibility of hundreds of rooms being disposed of after less than 10 years of use is endemic to a culture of disposability, even around homes and buildings.
He’s the founder of Renewal Development, a Vancouver-based company that saves single-family homes slated for demolition and transports them to other communities where they can be repurposed and reused.
Homes set for demolition moved to where theyâre needed
“It strikes me that there must be more responsible alternatives to simply smashing up thousands upon thousands of homes and sending all of those materials to the landfill,” he said.
In Metro Vancouver alone, he said, approximately one-third of landfill usage goes toward construction and demolition waste, and he wants governments and private organizations to do more to think about how to stop that from happening.
In the case of work camps, he said, buildings could be constructed not just for the purposes of one particular project but also with an eye to what they could be used for next.
“Too often, we don’t design for circularity,” he said. “We don’t design with the consideration of what is the end of life of the thing that we’re creating.”
He pointed out that there are other resource projects going up around the province and that modular housing has advanced to a point where buildings can be designed for transport and use as needed.
“This is a really great wake-up call for industry, for governments about … looking at more responsible alternatives than single use for homes or buildings, whatever it might be.”
Hiebert, the regional district chair, said his board had suggestions for repurposing at least one of the buildings as a treatment facility or a place for children and families to stay while visiting the hospital.Â
Who stands to gain from the massive Site C dam?
A meeting is being set up with B.C. Hydro, he said, to discuss next steps.
Asked whether he supported the need for work camps, he said he did, having seen multiple resource projects come and go over the years. In the case of Site C, he said, adding nearly 2,000 people to the local population without somewhere to live would have quickly overwhelmed existing hotels and rental units.
“So I agree with the camp,” he said. “I think the question we’re dealing with is what are we doing with it now that they’re done?”
