Second time for company caught dumping 

Valosphere, a soil transporter that was caught dumping illegally on Route 207 last week, was previously implicated in illegal dumping in Kahnawake in March.

“I’m pretty pissed,” said Kahnawa’kehró:non John Jacobs, who works for a company doing work on the Kahnawake Cultural Arts Center (KCAC) project. “They’re not allowed on our property anymore. They’re banned. I’d like to see them banned from our town for doing that. That’s twice.” 

However, according to the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) landfill coordinator, Travis McComber, it’s plausible that both incidents were accidental.

A driver for the company was charged with illegal dumping under Kahnawake’s Sanitary Conditions Law on March 6.

The drivers in the incident on October 15 were cautioned, according to Kahnawake Peacekeepers spokesperson Kyle Zachary. However, according to McComber, the inspector still had to finish his report, and now that it is completed, the drivers are expected to be charged, which will come with a fine.

According to Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) spokesperson Lisa Lahache, Valosphere is associated with The National Excavation, which has a part of the excavation contract for KCAC, but Valosphere is not involved in the project.

Both dumping incidents were in areas reserved for storage related to the excavation of the KCAC site, however.

The incidents come as illegal dumping is top of mind for many Kanien’kehá:ka, with Kanesatake overwhelmed by hundreds of dump trucks a day for much of the past year from companies eager to cash in on a lack of enforcement there. After a recent crackdown by Quebec, the matter is in court, with several lots on the Lake of Two Mountains testing positive for contamination.

Here in Kahnawake, the Valosphere drivers claimed when approached by inspector Bruce McComber that they were inadvertently misdirected by dispatch.

Travis McComber said he is willing to accept this explanation given the relationship between Valosphere and The National on other jobs.  

“I’m just guessing some wires got crossed there,” said Travis. 

“It wasn’t a good look for this company to be here dumping, but I think it was an honest mistake by their dispatch."

He also suggested the facts support this interpretation – there were only three loads dumped the first time and four loads last week. “It’s not like they were coming in at nighttime and they were dumping 50 loads of garbage,” he said.

Whether or not the incident was purposeful, Travis said what’s important is that no refuse was left behind.

“I'm just happy that they were caught and everything was cleaned up immediately,” he said.

The illegal dumping last week was reported by Phil Jacobs, who has an excavation business. He did not know at that time which company was responsible, he said, adding he was glad they were caught red handed by Kahnawake’s authorities.

“For us that do work around the community, we have to follow rules when we do anything. It’s a shame others think they can come here and get away with it,” he said. 

Valosphere was made to clean up the loads that were dumped last week, which has been completed, according to Travis. The material dumped last week was found to be crushed cement, he said, with perhaps some silica.

John Jacobs is not willing to forgive and forget and accept their explanation, however. 

“The first time they’re saying it was an error, now they’re saying this was an error,” he said, adding that in March, the company had other trucks ready to dump had they not been foiled.

“We don’t know what it is, what’s coming in,” he said in discussing the previous incident, which was at a different Route 207 site.

“They had no permission to bring it, so if their well water (on 207) was to be contaminated, who is to blame?” 

Mohawk Council chief Jeremiah Johnson was cautious but adamant.

“The truth is, the Council has to deal with this company, we have to reach out to them, find out why they're doing this. This can't happen again in the future,” he said.

“It's certainly not something we're happy with, obviously. We have laws that are coming out that are going to be dealing specifically with a lot of these issues,” said Johnson.  

“In the bigger picture, this really is a one-off. We don’t have a lot of this happening, especially with big companies like that,” said Travis McComber. 

“We’re not finding these kinds of materials all over Kahnawake at different times.” 

The company implicated in the two dumping incidents was the target of an investigation in La Presse earlier this month, which alleges that the Quebec government’s authority for public contracts revoked Valosphere’s authorization to obtain contracts with the province because of suspected ties to organized crime. 

Valosphere told La Presse that it has been the victim of a witch hunt. 

The company did not return requests for comment from The Eastern Door. 

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