Many people of Turtle Valley are expected to fill Kamloops Supreme Court next week over a legal battle on biosolids.

Residents were sued by Arrow Transportation after blocking the company from accessing the Turtle Valley Bison Ranch where it is contracted to take 23,000 tonnes of biosolids from the Kamloops sewage treatment plant.

Speaking to NL News while protesting outside Kamloops city hall today, Connie Seaward says the legal case has cost residents tens of thousands of dollars.

“We have a geohydrologist opinions saying that this aquifer is vulnerable, and surface contaminants can leach into this aquifer. We’re hoping that precautionary measures will be put in, or that it won’t be able to happen at all, because you should not be putting Class B biosolids that are untested onto a whole community’s water source,” Seaward says.

“I would really encourage the City of Kamloops, Arrow Transport, just test it and show us what’s in it. We’re not saying that it’s not truthful what they’re saying to us, we’re saying that we don’t have proof of that. So if you’ve tested it, show us the test results. And believe me, we’d all love to be done with this.”

Arrow has been blocked access to the biosolids site for more than a month, as area First Nations have continued a road block after a court injunction forced Turtle Valley residents to take it down on May 18.

Arrow has a two-year contract with the city worth $4.5 million – with two one-year extension options – to move 35,000 tonnes of biosolids out of the Kamloops sewage treatment plan.

Its project in Turtle Valley has already been approved by the Ministy of Environment, and the company’s regional manager Jeff Mayer told NL News the biosolids to be placed at the ranch property are tested to meet provincial standards and says they will be placed on land that had been logged previously and is devoid of nutrients.