A landowner charged with a nearly $92,000 contaminated soil cleanup bill by the City of Nanaimo is taking the municipality to court.
Duart Rapton filed a notice of civil claim with the Supreme Court of B.C. against the City of Nanaimo in September, seeking the difference between what the city estimated the cleanup for contaminated soil would be and the actual bill, as well as damages and “full and reasonable disclosure,” such as a contaminated soil report.
The City of Nanaimo responded last week that it denies nearly every allegation of fact in the notice of claim, and opposes the relief Rapton is calling for.
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Rapton was asked to remove soil , which the city reported was contaminated with lead, zinc and tin, in October of last year. In January, the property owner went to council for an extension, saying he was unable to remove the soil because the weather had been so bad.
Council declared the soil a nuisance and gave him 30 days to remove it. The tipping fee was estimated then to be up to $40,000.
A city staff report shows the City of Nanaimo has billed Rapton $91,991, including a tipping fee that topped $72,000, for the removal of contaminated soil on his Howard Avenue property.
According to the notice of civil claim, Rapton was unable to clean up the property himself because he was suffering from mental health concerns related to a bipolar disorder, grieving the loss of his sister and depressed the city was pursuing him, but he also believed he could afford to pay expected soil removal costs.
The document also says to the best of Rapton’s knowledge, the soil was not deposited on top of debris on the property, but there might have been some small quantity of drywall, roofing materials and other construction materials that were covered and that in August, council was provided evidence to indicate it was very likely there was some pre-existing contamination on the property due to a fire on the property before Rapton bought it.
Rapton told the News Bulletin if he doesn’t take the city to court, the city is going to take his houses. He also said the bill from the city is more than $93,000 because of interest, and he wants for the city to “make the bill go away.” He said the fault is theirs and the city had no business hauling the soil. He doesn’t believe it was contaminated and claims the city never showed him any paperwork on it.
“My lawyer said to me the other day, how far are you willing to go with this? I said I’m willing to go to $93,000. I would rather give it to my lawyer than them … I will never, never, never pay the city,” he said.
Tracy Samra, Nanaimo chief administrative officer, said in an e-mail that the city does not comment on matters that are before the court.
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