WATCH: Ten years after 1600 kilograms of garbage was airlifted from an illegal dumping site on the slopes of Little Mountain, Rotary Club of Parksville AM is aiming to do it again this spring.
On a clear day, the views from Little Mountain are beautiful, but Little Mountain has a not-so-little dirty secret.
“Well, it’s just a desecration of the environment,” said Rotary Club of Parksville AM President Bill Rawlins. “It’s unbelievable that people would be so ignorant.”
It seems that people aren’t just using the top of the mountain for sightseeing, they’re also using it as a launching pad for all sorts of garbage.
“As you can see from what happens here, people will park their car, go over the barricades with a bed or a hide-a-bed and they’ll carry it to the edge of the cliff for the fun of dropping it over,” said Rotary club member Jeff Grognet who lives on Little Mountain.
People drop their unwanted items over a 100-foot cliff, but then a lot of it keeps tumbling down 100 metres or more of the mountainside littering the treed slope with every kind of garbage imaginable.
“Sofas, beds, computer parts, engine parts, appliances, like it’s a Trail Appliances store, it’s unbelievable there’s every kind of appliance you can imagine,” added Rawlins. “Fridge, stove, microwave, you name it they’re all there. Hot water tanks, washers, dryers, they’re all over the side.”
On Saturday, a team of volunteers from Rotary Club of Parksville AM spent several hours putting garbage into large heavy duty bags that will be lifted out by a helicopter in April.
The same thing was done ten years ago.
“We took out 3600 pounds of garbage and since 2009, in almost ten years now we’re seeing I would say, almost two feet of garbage spread out over this entire area,” said Grognet.
The Rotary club is looking into having surveillance cameras set up on the top of Little Mountain to discourage further dumping.
Devin O’Rourke, a member of the Ballenas Secondary School Interact Club was also volunteering Saturday.
“I could not believe that it was just layer after layer that has been packed in here after being thrown down a 100-foot cliff,” he said.
“They do this rather than go to the transfer station which is probably a five-minute drive from here,” added Rawlins.
A date in April has not been set however the Rotary Club of Parksville AM could use more volunteers and funding to ensure the job gets done.
Dean Stoltz
