Prince George, B.C.- The Bio-solids hit the fan in the boardroom of the Regional District of Fraser Fort George this afternoon.

It started when the Red Rock Community Association put forth a request for a grant in the amount of $40 thousand dollars. The reason for the grant was given as “the betterment of the community” but the specifics of the use of the money were for “Testing, legal and advertising costs regarding the biosolids storage site on Patterson Road.” That was enough to rile some of the Directors who sit on the other side of the Boardroom from Director Bob Headrick in whose Electoral District Red Rock falls.

 In February, there was a public meeting in Red Rock about the planned spreading of biosolids on property on Patterson Road. Bio solids are the treated materials from Prince George’s sewage treatment plant.    The bio solids are to be spread on privately owned property on Patterson Road as fertilizer.

At the public meeting, residents expressed deep concerns about run off from the property making it into Red Rock Stream and the community’s water supply. The City of Prince George has offered to include upstream and downstream water quality monitoring of Red Rock Stream in it’s Land Application Plan and to have that monitoring done by an independent lab.

Director Terry Burgess started the furor saying he would not support a grant that is aimed at suing its neighbour.

Director Dave Wilbur says at the end of the February meeting he didn’t have the impression the residents were interested in “the direction that this is proposing to go. In addition to that, it seems to me this figure of $40 thousand dollars has been plucked out of the air. There is no assessment in a business plan sense, and I think it would be in appropriate to proceed harem scarem in this instance.”

Director Debora Munoz says she too attended the February meeting and believed the presentation answered all the concerns of the residents.

Director Dan Rogers wanted to know how suing the neighbours would be to the “betterment of the community” He told his fellow Directors the City was going to do extra testing, “We’ll back off if the neighbours want to pay for that.”

Bob Headrick said the betterment  of the community in this case is peace of mind, and   reminded his colleagues this money is from the pockets of the residents of his Electoral Area D   “It is their money not the City’s money, not Valemount’s money, not McBride’s money, not Mackenzie’s money it’s Electoral area D’s taxpayers who put the money in the pot. We are using it for the people of Electoral Area D. Is that a problem? If it is, then God help us.”

The Board agreed to defer the matter until the next meeting. Chair Art Kaehn says what is not clear right now is how this grant would improve testing. “If this money is needed to top that up and ensure there is a proper third party to monitor this project, then that’s why we need some time. We don’t need this kind of dispute going on in the board room because we’re all part of this (the Regional District)”  The request for   funding has been deferred to next month’s meeting.