A Hatzic Valley property could face further enforcement after several stop-work orders were issued for accepting unauthorized fill over the past year.
A notice of consideration of penalty was issued to 11130 Stave Lake Rd. in January by the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC), according to documents from the Natural Resource Compliance and Enforcement Database.
The order states that an ALC compliance and enforcement officer previously attended the Stave Lake Road property four times, including three times in the summer of 2023 and once in November.
During the officer’s first visit on June 2, Sran Trucking Ltd. trucks were identified entering and exiting the property with incoming trucks loaded with fill, according to the stop-work order.
The officer witnessed one truck dumping fill on the property while an excavator and bulldozer moved it around. The stop-work order notes the fill appeared to include construction waste such as rebar, concrete, plastic and rocks.
The property is owned by numbered company 1147421 BC Ltd, per ALC documents. Lakhvir Sran, also the director of Sran Trucking Ltd., was listed as director of the numbered company at the time of the first visit. Both companies are headquartered in Abbotsford.
The stop-work order reveals that the officer met Sran on the property after witnessing the movement and placement of fill on June 2. Sran informed the officer that 250 loads of fill were taken from an excavation site in Maple Ridge.
The penalty notice indicates Sran said the fill was used to construct an access road through the property, with plans to build a small house, install drainage and grow blueberries.
The officer advised Sran that the fill-related activity must cease. A stop-work order was issued days after the first visit along with orders to hire a qualified official to assist.
ALC documents state that Sran ordered the trucks to leave the property and equipment to stop working. However, after the officer left the property, more dump trucks were observed entering with Sran Trucking markings, the documents state.
The ALC inspected the property again on June 12 with an FVRD bylaw officer, a Ministry of Forests officer and a natural resource officer (NRO).
The documents indicate that fill was moved and levelled since the previous inspection when Sran was asked to cease all soil management activities. The NRO issued a ticket for unauthorized works in and around a stream.
Forestry issued an order under the Water Sustainability Act to stop work on stream-related activities, hire a qualified professional to map the wetland, submit the map by September 2023 and have a restoration plan developed by September 2024.
Around June 19, 2023, Sran was replaced as director of the numbered company by Ajmer Singh Sran, according to a stop-work order from August.
When the same ALC officer visited the property again in July, they observed a dump truck and pony leaving. It appeared that two additional piles of construction material may have been dumped, stop-work documents reveal. The documents state that the owner also didn’t comply with the officer’s June 6 notice requesting a qualified professional to remediate the property.
A bylaw officer inspected the property on Oct. 31 and provided photos showing approximately five dump trucks entering and leaving the property. In November, the ALC officer inspected the property again and found more unauthorized fill appeared to have been placed, including fill used to complete the construction of the access road with asphalt, soil and rocks.
According to the stop-work order, Sran Trucking Ltd. has been associated with depositing fill on other Hatzic Valley properties without authorization from the ALC.
ALC director of operations Avtar Sundher says a remediation order is being drafted. The ALC is also looking at drafting a penalty order for the property. “It’s a fairly lengthy process in terms of getting all our legal documents in a row,” Sundher said.
– The Mission Record made attempts to contact Sran Trucking for comments, but has yet to receive a response.
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