Bringing "up" the Trash

Martin Hanzalek, bottom right, hands a shopping cart to, from left, Julie Butala, Ben McKean and Meaghan Harris as they attempted to put a dent in the garbage at Capt. James Cook National Historic Site in the city. Star Photo by Geraldine Brophy
Published on June 6, 2007

Popular sites used as dumping grounds

CORNER BROOK When Martin Hanzalek first visited the Capt. James Cook National Historic Site, he saw a prime location to hold introductory rock-climbing excursions.

The steep rock face and the dramatic backdrop of the Bay of Islands are still awesome features hed like to take advantage of, but Hanzalek said the amount of garbage to be found below the cliffs is making Crow Hill an embarrassing place to bring visitors.

Hanzalek, who owns My Newfoundland Adventures, organized a community effort to clean up the site three years ago, offering people free rock climbing if they helped out. The project resulted in all sorts of items including oil drums, car windshields and medical waste being removed from the base of the cliff.
Topics : Algonquin College , Trans-Canada Highway , Corner Brook , Crow Hill , Bay of Islands
CORNER BROOK When Martin Hanzalek first visited the Capt. James Cook National Historic Site, he saw a prime location to hold introductory rock-climbing excursions.

The steep rock face and the dramatic backdrop of the Bay of Islands are still awesome features hed like to take advantage of, but Hanzalek said the amount of garbage to be found below the cliffs is making Crow Hill an embarrassing place to bring visitors.

Hanzalek, who owns My Newfoundland Adventures, organized a community effort to clean up the site three years ago, offering people free rock climbing if they helped out. The project resulted in all sorts of items including oil drums, car windshields and medical waste being removed from the base of the cliff.

When he returned to the site last spring, the mess was back. This time, he and 10 staff members brought up items such as washing machines, fridges, stoves, television sets and computers.

This week, Martin Hanzalek took another 10 staff members mostly adventure tourism graduates from Algonquin College in Ontario to the site with the idea of showing them what a great spot it was. When they got there, there was more garbage and another spring clean-up began.

This time, they removed 30 bags of garbage, as well as shopping carts, washing machines, oil drums and even boxes of old syringes.

We found the nastiest kind of stuff down there and we still havent put a dent into whats down there at the bottom of the cliff, said Hanzalek.

When we got there, one of our new guides said he would be embarrassed to take people climbing here. Its just not conducive to the type of program were trying to offer.

That really struck a chord with me. Heres someone, not even from Newfoundland, telling me hed be embarrassed to take people rock climbing here. Its an industrial dumping ground and not the type of super, natural Newfoundland experience were looking to offer.

Hanzalek said he was ticked off even further when he contacted the City of Corner Brook to see if a dumpster could be brought to the site or maybe a truck so the garbage could be properly disposed of.

We havent been able to get that kind of co-operation, said Hanzalek, noting they had to leave the garbage at the site.

With the City hoping to invest $1 million in revitalizing the Capt. Cook site, Hanzalek said more priority should be given to the garbage issue before any major cosmetic work gets done.

I really dont see the point of investing $1 million into restoration of this site if we cant handle basic issues like this, he said. I really cant take clients there any more if this is the way this site is going to be managed.

Hanzalek can always take people rock climbing in other locations, but said this is a sad reason to scratch Crow Hill off his list. Corner Brook Mayor Charles Pender said Hanzalek should have informed the City that his group was conducting a cleanup so municipal resources could have been more efficiently co-ordinated. Noting the collected garbage was being collected by City staff, Pender said this is a serious issue.

The real issue here is the ignorance of the people who continue to go up there and dump garbage, said the mayor. We just had our clean-up week and some of the appliances and things being found up there could easily be taken away during that. It boggles me why anyone would go through the trouble of going all the way up there to dump garbage.

I think it might be people from outside the city who would have to pay to dump that stuff at the Wild Cove landfill.

In fact, the City did a clean-up of the site last week and removed about five half-tonne pickup loads of debris.

Pender said anyone who witnesses illegal dumping should try and get the licence plate of the offender and report them to the authorities.

The issue of illegal dumping is not unique to Crow Hill. The Western Star recently did a story on the same kind of problem in Humber Arm South. It also rears its ugly head on the many forest access roads, such as Lady Slipper Road west of Corner Brook or North Harbour Road in Pasadena.

Faron Knott is the environmental management representative for Corner Brook Pulp and Paper, which is responsible for many of those forest roads. The company has conducted clean-up operations on Lady Slipper Road numerous times and the list of illegally discarded refuse includes things like washers, dryers, bike frames and even bathtubs.

Unfortunately, its just a few people who do this sort of thing, but its still a losing battle and theres nothing else we can do about it, said Knott.

The mill has an environmental management system in place which preaches zero tolerance for garbage in and around any of its operations.

Then you drive out over one of our roads and, just before you get to the Trans-Canada Highway, theres all kinds of garbage, said Knott. That hurts. Some people just have no regard for the at all.

Knott said anyone caught dumping illegally should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Last week, the president of Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador also said tougher enforcement is needed when it comes to people who dump garbage illegally.

It's like (illegal) moose hunting, said Wayne Ruth of Kippens. We're spread out all over province, but the odd time they do catch one (a poacher). When (authorities) fine them, it makes other people reluctant.

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