BURSTAs its last official act before the election, Smithers town council agreed to pay additional environmental costs for remediation of the old LB Warner site.
Council authorized a budget amendment to increase the Development Services Contracted Services 2026 budget by $47,000, from $50,000 to $97,000, for additional fees required to complete the environmental consultant services at the site on the corner of Main Street and 11th Avenue, as required in the Contaminated Soil Management Plan and Certificate of Compliance.
“These are the final costs, we are on the final stretch with this project and it is a long time coming,” Director of Development Services Mark Allen told council. “The fees are just necessary to take us to that finish line.”
The Dze L K’ant Housing Society’s affordable housing project is nearing completion and was funded by BC Housing. It will serve families and elders from the Indigenous community. The project is on the town-owned, 2.4 acre former LB Warner site.
The gymnastics club continues to have their gym on one side of the property and the apartment building is now on the other side.
As the owner of the land asset, the Town is responsible for compliance with provincial legislation. Management of the buildings and other amenities are the responsibilities of the tenants, as specified in the lease agreements with the Town.
In April 2024, the Town received the Certificate of Compliance, which outlined the requirements for handling contaminated soils during future development projects.
The Town awarded McElhanney a contract to provide environmental consulting services, including preparing the Contaminated Soil Management Plan and providing site testing and monitoring for the Dze L K’ant Housing Society Housing project and the soil relocation to the Airport receiving site.
Council approved a $200,000 budget for these services, which span 2025 and 2026.
According to a report from town staff, the two major soil contaminates at the LB Warner Centre were hydrocarbons and arsenic. During the building excavation in 2025 and the new access roadway excavation in 2026, previously unknown conditions were encountered, including buried oil storage vaults and construction debris. These conditions resulted in additional consulting fees.
Town staff were recently made aware of the additional costs and have now received the invoice. Additional fees were also incurred to provide professional soil management consulting services to support the town with relocating arsenic-contaminated soils to the airport receiving site, and the Dze L K’ant Housing Society project in relocating hydrocarbon contaminated soil to the Hazelton Landfill.
The Town has spent more than a million dollars on the LB Warner site, which also consisted of demolition of five old Provincial Highways Yard buildings with hazardous materials removal, removal of known hydrocarbon-contaminated soil, environmental testing, analysis, report-writing and monitoring, and other fees for obtaining provincial approvals.
The funding source was primarily the Northern Capital Planning Grant.
The last chunk of fees that was just approved will come from reallocating funds from other projects that did not require their full approved 2026 budgets.
“Just wanted to thank the staff for being able to find the funds for this by bringing other projects in under budget,” said Councillor Frank Wray.