The BC Environmental Appeal Board upheld almost $200,000 in fines against the owner of a private sewer system for a neighbourhood overlooking Skaha Lake south of Penticton.
Johnny Aantjes, the now-former owner of the Vintage Views private sewer system, had filed an appeal over multiple breaches of municipal wastewater regulations registered by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy and the Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Low Carbon Innovation.
In the board's April 10 decision, the fines were upheld and the appeal dismissed based on largely procedural grounds, after multiple delays by Aantjes including the most recent failure to request for an extension until seven days after submissions were due.
The last submission included a request for the board's support to subpoena witnesses to testify, and that they would need to do a question-and-answer process as additional questions are raised based on responses from different witnesses, and to have an oral hearing.
The director of the Environmental Management Act, handling the response for the ministries, asked for a dismissal, arguing that Aantjes had failed to be diligent in pursuing the appeal, and that he raised "sweeping allegations irrelevant to the appeal, promised action that never occurs, and have engaged in a pattern of delay."
The appeal board agreed with the director, finding that Aantjes submission relitigated decisions that had already been made by the board with regards to things like to the method of hearing, had failed to meet the requirements regarding applications for summons including being required 60 days prior to their submission deadline, and that the timeline was unspecified for interviewing the witnesses.
Aantjes had also sought facilitated settlement discussions, which the Director of the Environmental Management Act rejected as an option.
The issues that led to the $197,000 in fines, as covered by the administrative penalty reports published on the Natural Resources and Enforcement Database in 2023, include three known releases of effluent (liquid waste) from the system where the ministry was not informed, including one that flowed off-site and down an adjacent road and another that surfaced in a nearby orchard.
The orchard had been purchased in 2022 and the new owners had plowed the field without being aware of the sewer system's discharge fields under the ground, damaging pipes among other things and releasing the effluent.
The effluent itself was also an issue for the system, with samples submitted between Aug. 19, 2020, and May 6, 2022, showing that the fecal coliform levels were well in excess of acceptable levels and on average 4,920 per cent higher than the limit with a maximum of 24,700 per cent beyond the limit.
Aantjes approached the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen in 2022 to have them take over the system, and an April, 2025 referendum had overwhelming support for the move.
The appeal board's decision also notes that Aantjes had submitted allegations of bias and pre-judgement that were addressed and dismissed for being insufficient.
