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Bags of asbestos found dumped in Stave West

Mission RCMP were informed about 28 bags of construction material, marked as asbestos, which was illegally dumped on the weekend.
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Bags of old construction material

Twenty-eight bags of construction waste, including asbestos, was discovered dumped in the Stave West area on Sunday (May 22) afternoon.

Mission RCMP officers patrolling the area received a report about garbage that had been dumped about 4.5 kilometres up Florence Lake Forest Service Road. When police arrived the located 28 large plastic bags which appeared to be dumped construction materials. The bags were located along the side of the road and were clearly labeled as “waste asbestos” and “CAUTION”.

The District of Mission Public Works Department was advised and engaged an appropriate hazardous disposal company to remove the asbestos from the scene.

“This is one of the undesirable and unsafe activities which are occurring in Stave West and other rural areas around Mission, which police and local government are attempting to eliminate,” said RCMP Sgt. Shaun Wright.

“The dumping of garbage is costly to the taxpayers of Mission who end up paying for proper clean up.”

Wright said the impact of this illegal dumping is greatly increased when it is a hazardous material, such as asbestos in this case. Cleaning up hazardous materials can be a considerable cost.

“Those materials can also present a significant health risk to the thousands of people who utilize the area for recreation as well as the wildlife which live in the area,” said Wright.

Holiday weekend:

Other than the illegal dumping, Mission RCMP say it was a quiet weekend at Stave West.

The number of persons in the area was “fairly low” with 100 or less being seen around the mud flats at any given time. During the weekend:

  • One 41 year old male was arrested on an outstanding warrant for assault;
  • One Immediate Roadside Prohibition was handed out;
  • 14 provincial violation tickets (12 were for Off-Road Vehicle (ORV) related offences such as not wearing a helmet, not having ORV registered, and no insurance on a Forest Service Road.  The other two were for consuming liquor in public.
  • One bylaw ticket for having a wood burning fire.


Kevin Mills

About the Author: Kevin Mills

I have been a member of the media for the past 34 years and became editor of the Mission Record in February of 2015.
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