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[VicHockeyFan]

Cement plant raises ire of Langford neighbours

Bill Cleverley, Times Colonist
Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Neighbours are complaining that unending dust and noise from a Goldstream Avenue cement plant are becoming too much to bear, and add they are worried about the plant's impact on nearby Spencer's Bog.

But Tower Fence president Dennis Madsen says there's no dust at all coming from his new, state-of-the-art plant and there's no way he's going to pollute a bog that he owns.

"The dust in here is sometimes horrendous. It floats across the swamp," said Lynne Hedstrom, owner of Lynne's Little Elf Garden Centre at 1062 Goldstream Ave. "You've got a school right next door to it. It's caustic. They can say what they want about it, but it's ruining the environment."

"There's no dust at all," Madsen said. "There may be noise, but there's 100 per cent no dust. It's a brand spanking new 2007 plant."

As for runoff into the bog, he said it's not happening.

"It's my pond anyway, so I'm as sensitive about it as anybody because it's all my land," he said.

Madsen said he just updated his cement operation, but said there's no appeasing some "crazy" neighbours who complained even when he wasn't operating.

Langford council has referred the matter to its bylaw control division. City administrator Rob Buchan said there's an ongoing bylaw enforcement file about the operation so could say little other than it is being investigated.

"They said to me last night to deal with the bylaw enforcement officer. Well, I've been dealing with the bylaw officer for 10 years -- the same guy," said Hedstrom, who grew up on her family's Goldstream Avenue garden centre property and has lived there for 60 years.

"They just keep passing the buck and passing the buck," she said.

Hedstrom isn't alone with her grievance with council receiving other letters of complaint.

"The noise coming from next door is horrendous and even more annoying when it begins before 7 a.m.," wrote Alaysha Hickman, who adds Madsen promised to build a three-metre concrete fence to help reduce noise and dust. That hasn't happened.

"I am also concerned about the amount of pollution that will be produced. Langford (Spencer's) Bog is right behind his property and I've noticed a definite decrease in the amount of tree frogs that normally populate this area. There is a constant white scum on top of the bog that was never there in the last three years," Hickman says.

It won't be an easy dispute for Langford to resolve.

A cement plant has been operating on the site since 1983 -- prior to Langford becoming a municipality.

Acting mayor Denise Blackwell said complaints about the plant date back years. "It's basically the wrong business in the wrong place," she said.

Part of Langford's bylaw file on the operation relates to whether necessary permits were taken out for recent improvements to the cement-plant operation.

Blackwell said complaints about the operation have been increasing as the operation has become busier in recent years. "As they get busier and they want to expand, we're saying to them: 'You're in the wrong location.' It's not just the issue of the dust that's flying, there's the issue of Spencer's Bog that's right beside it," Blackwell said.

[Phil McAvity]

When i first saw the title of this thread I thought, VicHockeyFan must have heard i moved to Langford and has dedicated a thread to me.