Lotusland Vineyards, David Avery, Biodynamic farming, reclamation, toxic waste dumping, Abbotsford

1. Year of the sheep on a vineyard
Cheryl Lans with
quotes from David
Avery

2. Lunar New Year 2015 http://www.google.com/doodles/lunar-new-year-2015
via @/google.com/doodleste an Office Mix

3. www.brandever.com/_pdf/_news/2004_02_07_
National_Post.pdf
SP5. How newfriends ih high places saved a
BC. winery. BY JOHN T.D. Ksvas in Vancouver.
David and Liz Avery own a four- hectare
organic vineyard

4. Formerly organic property now
contaminated
Waste from the Port
Mann Bridge
construction and the
Gateway Project on
Hwy 1 was dumped
onto Strong Pit
behind the Avery
property

5. His mom died and we don’t know why
He gets mostly goat milk, once some
quinoa milk and can’t mooch off the
other moms

6. Flocks; the sheep on rented land

7. My idea and I
am taking
credit
David Avery says that
this is my brilliant idea
and no one on the
farm ever did it
before- it is light
enough to move
every day and
provides shelter from
the endless rain

8. Did you bring
my milk?

9. Yes I can round
the sheep up if
allowed to, and
the ducks and
chickens and I
can dig the
Kubota out of the
compost row and
the weeds. ..Wait,
weeds? I thought
it was a mouse
you saw!

10. Rented land for
sheep, cows and
pigs
This rented land
was reclaimed
and now has
many waterfowl
Wikipedia waterfowl

11. Many birds
These bird
pictures come
from
Wikipedia, and
represent the
birds on the
property

12. Solar
powered
fencing
When you have
to move them
in pouring rain
every day, and
your boots
have holes, you
have a brief
longing for
permanent
fences.

13. You say solar
powered
chicken fence
I say trusting
chicken gets
more worms
than I can find
for myself. Keep
cleaning those
planters.

14. Moving the chicken houses

15. Yes I am
coming
I’m the littlest and I’m staying
home with my dad

16. 12 dead cats
David Avery says that 12 of the farm’s
cats ended up dead with tire tracks on
them during the years that the trucking
company was dumping toxic waste from
the Port Mann Bridge construction and
the Gateway Project on Hwy 1 onto
Strong Pit behind his property.
See confirmation that the waste was
dumped at Strong Pit here:
http://www.aldergrovestar.com/news/12358
5339.html

17. Lights shone all night
into the Avery and
neighbouring
houses, from
somewhere over
here

18. Yes we howl
all day
When did they eat, if
they never stopped
howling? They’re
gone to other homes
now.
Camera on auto-
focus? Really?

19. Howling all
day, Trucking
all night
David Avery said that the trucks to Strong Pit worked all
day and most of the night for years and threw up rocks
onto his property. Some of which he was angry enough
to put back on the road – leading to a meeting with a rep
from the trucking company.
http://iaerc.pmh1.ca/01_Management%20Plans/01_PMH1/01_CEMP/
PMH1%20CEMP%20Rev%2010/S0_ENV_CEMP-
PMH1_8%200%20Contaminated%20Sites_Rev10_2013-06-01.pdf
ABBOTSFORD Report No. ENG 42-2009 July 31,2009 File No: 4520-40 (SRP #'s 113,145, 1293) To: Mayor and
Council COUNCIL REPORT Executive Committee From: Subject: Dave Loewen, Manager, Engineering
Inspections and Permits Request to Haul Gravel at Night for Gateway Project RECOMMENDATIONS 1. THAT
Report No. ENG 42-2009, dated July 31, 2009, from the Manager, Engineering Inspections and Permits,
regarding a request for night hauling of gravel from the Ministry of Transportation gravel pit (Strong Pit), on
King Road, and for soil deposit at the Bradner Road Central Pit, from Lafarge Canada Inc., and at 2211
Lefeuvre Road (SRP 1293) for construction of the Port Mann Bridge (Gateway Project), be received; and 2.
THAT Council grant approval for night hauling of gravel for the purposes of the Gateway Project construction
for the duration of the project
https://abbotsford.civicweb.net/document/11886/ENG%2042-
2009%20Request%20to%20Haul%20Gravel%20at%20Night%20for%20Gateway%20Project.pdf?handle=9010
ECD80D204FC6BBB3E43753CBBC40

20. Dumping
took place on
reclaimed
land
Wikipedia and
Audubon Canada
goose

21. David Avery
wrote “one of the Senior Engineers on the
project he was signing off on
hundreds of truckloads of toxic waste
coming out of the old waste sites on
both sides of the river; Surrey and
Coquitlam. That is fact confirmed by a
retired employee of Highways. It was
been transported back to the gravel
pit behind us which is managed by
Highways on provincial crown land.

22. David
Avery
wrote
The reason being the Richmond toxic waste site
reached capacity early on in the excavation. The
Engineer will not step forward until he retires as
whistle blowers are shunned by industry and he
would not find work”.
“We confronted City Hall here in Abbotsford as
Highways operates gravel pits under municipal
reclamation permits.

23. David Avery
wrote They inquired about my
allegations and were told by
Highways it would only be a
'temporary storage facility' for
the pcb's, dioxins, and heavy
metals contained in the toxic
soup. Christie had 48 hours to
come up with a new place to
dump this material at a time
when the bridge was forecast to
be 1.5 bil over budget

24. David Avery
wrote
..18 months behind
schedule, and Kiewit was
ready to pull out. Taking
this waste to the next
closest legal toxic waste
site SE of Calgary our
Engineer acquaintance
explained,
Wikipedia
waterfowl pics

25. David Avery
wrote
would have added 800 mil to 1 bil to
the cost, if we had enough dump
trucks and drivers in the province to
make the trek..”
in the meantime the City of
Abbotsford had requested we sign a
covenant on our property which
would have restricted any further
construction, at the sane time our
original permit for our temporary
wine shop required we replace it with
a new building................... a catch 22.

26. David Avery
wrote
They since modified
their request to a fire
protection covenant on
the wine shop only, the
public building
I had already had a
meeting with our
mortgage holder, as
required in the
mortgage agreement, to
disclose the escalating
toxic waste site.
Audubon American Beaver

27. David Avery
wrote
The VP of RBC went
ballistic........ he called the
ministry of environment
only to find out unless he
had first hand knowledge
they wouldn't even look
into it.
Our mortgage came up for
renewal that year..............
and RBC thanked us for
revealing the facts of the
toxic waste by raising our
risk factor to one of the
highest categories

28. David Avery
wrote
from one of the lowest and nearly
tripling our interest rates and only
weeks to sign. When I reminded
them that they way copies of our
cash flow statements and we didn't
net enough to cover the hike in the
interest payment, they just told us
'sign it' or get some other bank to
take it over.

29. David Avery
wrote
I said that of course
we would have to
disclose the toxins to
them as well, he
recommended we not
do that........................
Winslow Homer The Reaper 1878 collage

30. David Avery
We were appalled. We then
sought advice regarding the
renewal and what to do. We
were told not to sign nor make
the last two payments as it was
likely the property value had
plummeted below the value of
the mortgage and we had
nothing to lose. That was about
three years ago.

31. David Avery
wrote RBC started foreclosure to try and
scare us into moving our
mortgage but backed off when the
following incident was printed in
the paper, highly edited and
watered down I might add, and I
disclosed the toxic waste site on
the record in court. Since then
they and their law firm have made
themselves scarce................ at least
in the meantime.

32. David Avery
wrote
Since then the M of H
and M of E have engaged
in a gross cover up. Even
going to the extent of
blaming our compost
operation for a salish
sucker fish kill a year ago
last summer.

33. David Avery
wrote
I have got a verbal quote
to protect our land from
migration of the
toxins.............. in excess
of a $mil............... If RBC
ended up with it the
environmental liability
would likely be between
2-3 $mil I'm told.

34. David Avery
wrote The chemistry they used to draw
that conclusion is impossible; you
take a large pond with neutral pH,
add high pH runoff from finished
compost, you don't end up with
water at pH 5.3. But you do if you
add effluent from toxic waste
storage at pH 4.7 - 4.8 as is flowing
from that site

35. David Avery
wrote
................ As the M of E knows
the truth they have never
charged us with the fish
kill and continue
threatening us with
everything they can come
up with in an attempt to
shut us up............

36. Blame game in
the mystery of the
fish kill
http://www.ottawa
citizen.com/News/
9925879/story.ht
ml

37. David Avery
wrote
Needless to say RBC
would not sign the
covenant so the City of
Abbotsford, in their
retaliatory fashion did
not grant our business
license without the
covenant we could not
possibly fulfill

38. David Avery
wrote
and promptly called LCLB
to inform them we didn't
have a business license
which forced LCLB to
suspend our
license................. that was
18 months ago.

39. David Avery
wrote
We can no longer sell, promote or
make wine................ So we give it
away in the wine shop and ask
patrons to leave a donation to our
favourite charities in lieu of paying
us. Needless to say we can't do that
much longer......................
I am starting to feel I am more of an
activist than a potential
politician.....................

40. We are seriously considering creating a
petition on change.org.
We would transfer ownership of the
property to a npo we create, then petition
RBC to forgive the mortgage under the
circumstances,

41. then go after the provincials to
turn the 160 acre contaminated
site behind us over to that npo,
and work with the Universities
and Colleges to run
experiments with trees, shrubs,
and other plants to find ways of
sequestering the toxins and
eventually detoxifying the
properties
David
Avery wrote

42. David Avery
wrote
............. a lemon into lemonaid
for all involved, and asked to
be compensated for our loss.
We have advertised our
business and property for sale
for about 3.5 years now. Three
deals have collapsed on the
business and the highest offer
we have received on a once
valued property of $1.3 mil
was $50,000.

43. I have had nearly three hundred
inquiries while the asking price
dropped from 850 to 450 and now
$175,000...................... but everyone
has shunned away when told the
truth.................. who can blame them
at any price. We certainly don't want
to live here......................... the toxins
have started bubbling to the surface
next door...........
David Avery
wrote

44. David Avery
is President of
the
Biodynamic
Association
The methods of SLR are based on
Biodynamic agriculture, a specific form
of organic agriculture which views the
farm as a self-contained, self-sustaining
ecosystem responsible for creating and
maintaining its individual health and
vitality without any external or unnatural
additions. Soil, plants, animals and
humans together create this image of a
holistic living organism.
.
http://www.seke
m.com/slr.html

45. Biodynamic
farming
SEKEM applies Biodynamic
agricultural methods, with
compost being the major
component in turning desert
land into living and healthy
soils. The application of
resilient crops and natural
predators prevent the
introduction of external inputs
such as chemical fertilizers and
pesticides

46. He stopped selling his
wine as organic. But
shouldn’t he have
done more? It does
not take much to
search on the Internet
to find out what
plants and trees to
use.
David Avery is
President of the
Biodynamic
Association
Vladimir Yegorovich Makovsky

47. phytoremediation
http://www.ajol.info/index.php/
ajb/article/viewFile/92167/816
20
Trees/Plants mentioned:
Poplar, Willow, horseradish,
Other options are already on
site like cattails and reeds. Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Landscape with Shepherds and Flock of
Sheep, c. 1763-6

48. Maybe I am biased
because I don’t like
flat land.
I did not have to live
through the
constant noise and
the lights at night
and those can
definitely alter your
perception.
If I had land and someone put a mountain behind it I
would say thank you very much and by the way I
have the training to fix the pollution over time so
maybe you should fork over some funding.
I like the eagles and the ducks and
the geese

49. David Avery
Proprietor/Winemak
er Lotusland
vineyards President
Over 49 Vineyards &
Vines Ltd. and Grape
Vine Sales
Regenerative, Bio-
Dynamic Organic
Group of Companies