JULY 2018 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC ALC allegations nix Delta farmer’s vision


Cranberry venture


bogged down in legal wrangling by SEAN HITREC


DELTA – Don Malenstyn has all but given up on his career and passion after losing an appeal of a remediation and stop-work order from the Agricultural Land Commission. “I didn't think I'd ever say it, but I'm done. This is ridiculous. This is 54 years of my life completely wasted,” he says, surveying the 80-acre property where he was raised. The property now hangs in


a state of limbo, eight years after his efforts to work with the local water table incurred the wrath of neighbours and the ALC. Years of losing his potato


crop to summer flooding prompted Malenstyn to take matters into his own hands and begin filling the property with a view to growing cranberries and leaving his son an arable property. The water woes started


more than 20 years ago when Delta began pumping water from the Fraser River into irrigation ditches along 104th Street. Malenstyn’s property is one of the lowest in Delta; some areas dip below sea level. “I've had 89% of my [potato] crop lost. That was 2001, the year my son was born, and I worked three other jobs to support the farm. I didn't see money till 2005 from Delta,” he says, referring to an out-of-court settlement. Malenstyn adds that


salinity from the Fraser River salt wedge and leaks in his neighbour’s septic tank flow into his ditch. To solve the problem, he created a four- metre-deep, above-ground reservoir, with plans to have his own closed-loop filtration system for his cranberry bogs (which need fresh water all- year round). Malenstyn, who had


accepted fill from Delta to help fix his water problem since 1996 without issue, began accepting fill in larger quantities from local


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Delta farmer Don Malenstyn has been dealing with water issues on his land for more than 20 years. When he decided a cranberry operation was the best fit, a whole new set of problems confronted him. SEAN HITREC PHOTO


developers in 2009 to complete the work. But the new deliveries


attracted greater scrutiny than in the past, thanks to concerns over illegal fill


operations. With booming development in the Lower Mainland, it was often cheaper for companies to pay landowners to take fill than to transport it to designated fill


sites. But the Agricultural Land Commission Act says landowners need to seek approval before accepting fill. “There's a lot of fill looking for a place to land,” says ALC


director of policy and planning Martin Collins. “The reality is … the money you can get for [taking fill] can


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