Deep Water Recovery, a ship dismantling and recycling company, has been penalized $46,105 for releasing toxic effluent into the ocean off the coast of British Columbia. The company's facility, located in Union Bay near Vancouver Island, has faced significant scrutiny and opposition from local communities and environmental advocates due to its operations and their implications for the surrounding marine environment.
The Union Bay facility, sprawling over 111 acres and situated on a beachfront, receives ships and barges from across British Columbia and international waters. Since beginning its operations in 2020, the company has dismantled numerous vessels, including barges, which has sparked considerable local opposition. The K'ómoks First Nation publicly opposed the facility in 2021, citing concerns about environmental impacts.
In 2022, provincial inspectors conducted examinations of Deep Water Recovery’s nearshore dismantling operations. They issued three warnings to the company for breaching environmental regulations. By November 2023, the Ministry of Environment rejected Deep Water Recovery's application for a permit to release effluent into the environment, citing serious concerns over potential ecological damage.
The situation escalated further in early 2024 when inspectors discovered that the company was actively recycling a barge and a vessel, despite a site activity report claiming that no vessel recycling had occurred since spring 2023. The effluent released by Deep Water Recovery was found to contain alarmingly high levels of copper, zinc, and lead—levels exceeding provincial water quality guidelines by nearly 24,000 percent. Acute copper concentrations were measured at 160 times British Columbia's limits for marine life, while zinc levels exceeded the established limits by more than 13 times.
The facility's operations are situated near an "ecologically and biologically significant area" essential for Pacific salmon, which supports 60 percent of all herring spawning in the Strait of Georgia. The toxic effluent is expected to have lasting environmental effects, persisting for years or even decades.
Concerns have been voiced by local residents regarding the lack of proper containment measures at the facility. Mary Reynolds, a local advocate, highlighted the inadequate precautions taken during ship dismantling, stating, “There’s just no precautions. They torch apart the ship on soil. There’s nothing preventing anything from running down into the ocean.” She emphasized the need for responsible practices in ship recycling, saying, “It’s needed. We have to do something. We produce a lot of ships and we can’t be shipping them off to other countries. But we have to do it properly.”
In response to the violations and public outcry, Mark Jurisich, representing Deep Water Recovery, defended the company's practices. He asserted, “I think our operation is exceptionally clean,” and stated that they operate with transparency and sincerity. Jurisich added, “If we felt we were doing something wrong, we would respond to it immediately.” He also claimed that the mineral content of their operations is a natural occurrence in the area and insisted that it has “nothing to do with what we’re doing.”
Despite these reassurances, the environmental consequences of the company's operations remain a pressing concern for local communities and environmentalists. Reynolds pointed out that Deep Water Recovery lacks the necessary equipment and expertise to carry out such operations safely: “They don’t have the equipment, facility or expertise to do the kind of work they want to do here.”
The $46,105 penalty represents the largest sanction Deep Water Recovery has faced to date and underscores ongoing tensions between industrial operations and local environmental health. As regulations tighten and scrutiny increases, the future of ship recycling in British Columbia remains uncertain.
