The mayor of Kamloops says the city is only a sideline player in the biosolids dispute playing out in Turtle Valley.

Ken Christian says the city is a victim of its own success in upgrading its waste treatment plant creating biosolids, which now need to be trucked somewhere, ending the practice of polluting the Thompson.

“That issue at Turtle Valley is really one where the residents there have a problem with the law,” he said. “I don’t believe it’s a problem with Kamloops or with Arrow Transportation necessarily, but they don’t like the organic matter regulation and they want to see changes to that.”

“That is a legitimate position, and that is a position that they need to take up with the Government of British Columbia and not the city of Kamloops.”

Christian believes the dispute puts the city out of compliance with its permit for storing biosolids, adding they are also running out of room.

He says the other concern is sewage is also being shipped into Kamloops from both in and out of the region, an issue that needs addressing.

“Last year in Kamloops 2,175 loads of sewage was delivered to us from the immediate area in the TNRD and beyond actuallym” he said. “I’m concerned about that on two fronts, one is that it’s inefficient to be bringing that here from a greenhouse gas perspective.”

“Also, we have no capacity to maintain source control when we are accepting loads from outside our jurisdiction.”

Turtle Valley residents set up blockades late last month, blocking Arrow trucks from doing prep work at the site.

Arrow Transportation in turn filed a lawsuit against the people involved in that blockade.