The level of frustration is growing among parents of students attending Eagle Mountain middle school in Anmore as a solution to the leaching onto the school’s property of water contaminated with fecal coliform and e coli from a nearby septic system continues to be elusive.
That contamination was detected last September at several sites along the bottom of a hillside field adjacent to the school. The field forms part of the septic system which collects waste from the 51-unit Anmore Green Estates strata complex above the school.
Diane MacSporrin, the president of the Eagle Mountain’s Parent Advisory Council (PAC), said parents went into a special meeting in the school’s library on Tuesday hoping to hear a plan for a definitive resolution and a date that will be achieved. Instead, many left more concerned than ever the problem won’t be resolved before the next school year begins in September.
“There’s so much confusion,” said MacSporrin of the meeting that was attended by about 75 people, including representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Anmore Green Estates, School District 43, the MLA for Port Moody-Coquitlam, Rick Glumac, as well as the mayor of Anmore, John McEwen along with several members of the village council. “It feels like our children are being held hostage.”
MacSporrin said the parents’ frustration is amplified by two separate engineering reports — one of them peer reviewed — that recommended the best solution to prevent further contamination from the septic system is to allow Anmore Green Estates to hook into Port Moody’s municipal sewer system, just 67 metres away.
The Ministry of Environment’s David Morel said a sewer hookup should happen, and could be limited to the 51 units that comprise Anmore Green Estates. The city of Port Moody has said it would allow the hookup, as long as Anmore Green pays for it, which the strata said it's willing to do.
But McEwen said there are still many unknowns about what those costs might be, as well as any implications of allowing a sewer hookup would have for the village.
“This is a huge game changer for us in regards to our OCP,” McEwen said, referring to the village’s recently adopted official community plan that entrenches its “semi-rural character” that includes keeping properties on septic systems.
McEwen said even a sewer hookup limited only to Anmore Green Estates would require an amendment to that OCP triggering a need for public engagement and hearings before it could be allowed to happen.
“It could be very difficult to sell,” McEwen said, adding that process could begin as early as Friday if a special meeting of the village council can be convened. “In Anmore people are very passionate about being a semi-rural community.”
But MacSporrin said parents of students attending Eagle Mountain middle, as well as Heritage Woods secondary school next door, are passionate about their kids’ well-being. She said that isn’t being protected, even with the hillside field closed off by heavy blue steel fencing that was erected last Dec. 23 as required by a pollution abatement order issued last November to Anmore Green by the ministry.
MacSporrin said some parents are looking at sending their kids to other schools.
“It’s definitely something people are talking about,” MacSporrin said. “How long can we maintain the frustration?”
