Move From Salt Spring
Salt Spring Coffee applied for rezoning of a residential lot on Salt Spring Island in the summer of 2008. The company wanted to relocate its offices and roasting facility into a new 1,115-square-metre building. Residents of the rural neighbourhood, including artist Robert Bateman, expressed concerns about the introduction of industrial zoning (a half-kilometre from Ford Lake) including: commercial and industrial sprawl along the main road, odour concerns, and emissions effecting a nearby protected wetland. An Islands Trustee has "cited outstanding odour concerns, the large number of covenants, and the threat of commercial and industrial sprawl in the rural neighbourhood as her main reasons for opposing the application." The company was seeking to build the world's first LEED certified coffee roasting facility, however the application for rezoning was denied Following the refusal, the company sought alternative locations in the Victoria and Vancouver areas.
In January 2009 the company began roasting production in a Richmond distribution warehouse, as they searched for an appropriate permanent location. Shortly after employees of a neighbouring business, International Cosmeticare, complained of symptoms including "nausea, eye and skin irritation, headaches, coughing, sneezing and breathing difficulties" which they blamed on the roasting. Salt Spring Coffee had been using a thermal oxidizer, which is supposed to control air pollution, but Metro Vancouver (the agency which regulates air emissions) had not yet approved the company's permit and it was speculated that the thermal oxidizer was not installed correctly or it was not being maintained. WorkSafe BC ordered the company to make changes to the exhaust system so that the air is not recirculated into the building and to not roast during weekday business hours.
Read more about this topic: Salt Spring Coffee Co.
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