The City of Maple Ridge, B.C., confirms that a company seen dumping waste and hazardous material in a forested area has been fined and has cleaned up the mess.
Devean Schoenfelder, who owns Dev’s Disposals, spotted the company, Junk Be Gone, around 8 p.m. on Tuesday and turned around to see what was happening.
“That’s when I realized he was dumping garbage and I pulled out my phone, started taking photos, as best I could,” he told Global News.
“They couldn’t find a place to dump it so I guess they came here.”
Schoenfelder said he has seen people illegally dumping garbage before and it shouldn’t happen.
In a statement, Sarj Dhaliwal, owner of Junk Be Gone Disposal, said one of his employees took a company vehicle without his knowledge and illegally dumped the garbage.
“As soon as I learned about this, I immediately went to the site myself, cleaned up the mess, and have been in contact with the City of Maple Ridge, bylaw enforcement, and the RCMP to fully cooperate,” he said.
“I want to make it clear: Junk Be Gone Disposal does not condone or practice illegal dumping. I am a small business owner with a young family, and I’ve built this business on honesty and hard work. This incident does not reflect who we are or how we operate.”
Dhaliwal confirmed that the employee was terminated.
The City of Maple Ridge says it takes illegal dumping very seriously.
“Upon receiving reports of a junk disposal company dumping waste and hazardous materials in a forested area, City staff responded immediately to secure the site, assess the impacts, and begin clean-up,” the city said in a statement.
“After relocating the waste material to the Cottonwood landfill, City teams have issued a fine to the non-local business owner who has now collected and removed the waste material from the area. Bylaw will pursue all appropriate enforcement actions as required to ensure accountability.”
Anyone who has seen illegal dumping of any material is asked to call 604-463-9581 or 604-467-7305.