by Roe Knotwon

Catalyst is applying to expand the landfill and put Powell River on the map with the Sunshine Coast’s only pyramid. A 72-foot monument to consumerism and waste, the pyramid will take 35 years to complete, have a foot-print of 14 acres, be the largest manmade structure in Powell River and add considerable weight to the cliffs above Powell Lake.

The pyramid will be relatively inexpensive to build as slurried fly ash supplied by Catalyst will form the major construction component. Slurried fly ash looks like watery cement, and is brought in cement trucks. You’ll be able to see between four and eight trucks running daily if the pyramid is to be completed on time and at a savings to the company. Once dry the fly ash slurry hardens, like chalk, which is a good thing because it is caustic and you wouldn’t want it migrating into the water or blowing away.

Finally! A decent tourist attraction in Powell River: the Powell River Pyramid project. How did Wildwood get so lucky? I decided to go there and ask some Wildwood-ites which way the wind blows.

Back in the seventies the landfill was an illegal dump site. No one kept records and no one knows what is down there—probably anything that couldn’t be flushed out to sea. In 1996 the company legalized the landfill and capped it with asphalt. A permit was given to create a mini-landfill adjacent to it. The people in Wildwood were not excited about a landfill close to their homes—but it was small, only 100,000 cubic meters.

This mini landfill is almost full and there is nowhere to go but up. When I ask which way the wind blows, Wildwood-ites tell me it blows over the elementary school, houses and farms.