Large dump site discovered at popular Vancouver Island park

Darrell Wick frequents Mount Douglas Park in Saanich, B.C., a popular spot for nature lovers. Usually, he finds lush plants and trees, but this week, he found more than that; during his walk. He came across a rather large dump site.

Sofas, chairs, a desk and more were scattered throughout the bush.

"It appears that somebody dumped an entire house suite of furniture in the park," he told On the Island guest host Khalil Akhtar.

Wick, who is an active member of the park advocacy group, Friends of Mount Douglas Park Society, said the edge of the road near the park is a common spot for people to dump unwanted garbage and household items, but he was surprised someone would haul the furniture all the way into the park itself.

He estimates the culprit had to carry things 30 metres up the road, and then another 20 metres to the spot they chose to leave them.   

"It was a lot of work," he said.

Wick reported the dump site to the District of Saanich Parks Department which, just hours later, sent in a team to retrieve the litter.

It's not entirely unusual for Mount Douglas Park, as well as other parks in Saanich, to attract illegal dumping. 

Andrew Burger, manager of park operations for the District of Saanich, says the parks department receives around 500 illegal dumping complaints every year — more than one a day.

"Right now, it's roughly about $50,000 a year that we, for Saanich Parks, have to use of taxpayer dollars," said Burger.

"Everyone ends up paying, both the environment and taxpayers." 

Illegal dumping carries with a minimum $150 fine, as well as pick-up and disposal fees, but Burger says it's a difficult bylaw to enforce because it often happens overnight.

"It's extremely frustrating. We take pride in our parks, how we build them and how we maintain them...and people [are] just using it as dumping grounds," he said.

Burger says the city provides extra options for the public to dispose of extra waste such as ordering larger carts or buying collection stickers from the city which will permit the removal of 2 extra bags of garbage on your scheduled collection day.

Larger household items can be taken to the public drop-off area at the Hartland landfill for disposal.