As some trailer park residents are packing up their lives and moving on, others are refusing to leave even with the threat of their properties being barricaded.
On August 31, River Valley Park trailer park will be officially closed.
River Valley Park is about five kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie.
On Saturday, just five days away from a closing date set by Algoma Public Health (APH), park owner Harjeet Dusanjh came up from Toronto and held an emergency meeting with residents to discuss what’s going to happen next.
On June 8, APH ordered the park closed because public health officials say the sewage system was in a state of disrepair, creating a health hazard for residents and a contamination threat for the nearby Root River.
Since then, residents say they have received APH paper notices slipped into the cracks of their doors that state the park owner must close the park by August 31 or suffer $25,000 a day after as a penalty.
River Valley Park owner Harjeet Dusanjh (left) and his nephew Raju Singh (right) held an emergency meeting about the forced closure on Saturday. Jeff Klassen/SooToday“I want to fix this — I don’t want a problem,” said Dusanjh.
Dusanjh said he can’t afford fines that high so he will be forced to close the park but he’s not entirely sure what that ‘closing the park’ means, in a practical sense.
He can’t actually force residents out of their trailers, he said.
Dusanjh said he’s committed to complying with Algoma Public Health as much as he can but, he said, he doesn't even know if he’s legally allowed to cut off water and hydro to tenants.
He said he may put a vehicle barricade at the trailer park entrance — if any residents wanted to get to their properties they would have to park somewhere else and walk.
Dusanjh was asked if he could block off the public roads going into the park.
“That’s a good question,” he replied, still unsure, he said, on how he will handle Thursday’s closure.
“What we want is a meeting at the table with the Member of Provincial Parliament, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, APH, our engineer, and the park and sit at the table before the closing date because people’s lives are at stake essentially,” said Dusanjh’s nephew Raju Singh, who is acting as a spokesperson for the park.
Dusanjh said the park’s sewage problem can be fixed with new air blowers that would infuse oxygen into the septic tanks to feed bacteria that breaks down waste.
He said he has been ready to install air blowers since he was first told the park needed them in 2016; however, in order to go ahead with the work, he says he's had to try to coordinate with the MOECC, APH, and engineers - which creates periods of long delay in the work.
“They never tell us clearly what to do,” said Dusanjh. “If we follow one order they come up with a new one the next day and after that another one.”
He said the last hurdle before installing the air blowers is the completion of an Environmental Compliance Approval which his engineers told him would likely take months to have completed because of common MOECC delays.
Dusanjh’s engineers told him if the MOECC expedites the process it could be as fast as a month, but that’s still long after Algoma Public Health’s ordered closing date.
A joint meeting between the involved organizations is the only solution Singh said he can think of to quickly solve things.
River Valley Park residents crammed the park's office trailer for an emergency meeting on Saturday, just five days before a forced closure by Algoma Public Health is supposed to take effect. Jeff Klassen/SooToday“Even if it’s just at Tim Hortons,” he said.
In the meantime; as a corrective measure, Dusanjh said he is regularly flushing out the septic system and at the meeting he asked residents to reduce their water usage.
There are 35 lots in the park and Dusanjh estimates around 75 people are living there.
19 of those residents attended the emergency meeting.
“Bottom line, are you going to fix it or not?” said one resident in attendance.
“Our plan is to fix it,” said Singh. “We have plans and everything from the engineers to fix it however we cannot touch it without (MOECC) approval. So, we are waiting for their approval but they won’t meet with us until all the tests are done. We have given them a timeline from the engineers that they say will be done a preliminary study on the 15th (of September).”
Dusanjh tried to persuade residents not to leave.
“What happens if they don’t lift the notice and you don’t move?” he asked.
“I’m not moving,” replied someone.
“You’re better not to — but people are panicked down here and if they move, what happens after? What is the point in spending all this kind of money?” he said to the audience, referring to all the work he is doing towards fixing up the park's septic system.
One resident asked, “If they did shut us down could you not provide us with Porta Potties?
The conversation moved on without that question being answered.
The entrance sign to River Valley Park trailer park. Jeff Klassen/SooTodaySooToday asked residents at the meeting if they had ever seen any sewage leaking or backwash — they all said no.
Throughout the park, reactions are more mixed.
“It is what it is,” said trailer park resident Kevin Spence who, along with his girlfriend, nine children, and two dogs, is moving out in the coming days.
Spence is perhaps the trailer park resident that lives closest to the park’s sewage problems.
He said he has seen sewage bubbling up from a manhole next to his property and in the winter he saw slushy sewage running across the road outside his home.
“It looks like smelly water. It has a smell to it,” said Spence.
Spence said he is leaving the park for the good of his kids.
“If it was just me and my girlfriend I’d stick it out . . . but with kids involved you can’t take the risk,” he said.
Vickie Bellemare has lived at the park for nine years and on Saturday she had already sold her home’s oil tank, furnace, and some windows, and all her furniture was packed into friends’ and family’s vehicles.
She’s moving into town.
“Everyone’s supposed to be out of the trailer park by the 31st,” said Bellemare, who has been living at the trailer park for nine years, has two kids, and who said she was under the impression police would show up on the 31st. “The stress is killing me.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” said Lena Dubois, who has lived in the trailer park for 30 years.
Dubois was defensive of Dusanjh and highlighted that when he took the trailer park over in 2014 he fixed it up and ended a boil water advisory that had gone on for 15 years.
Dubois said she walks around the park every day and has never seen a problem with the sewage system.
Dubois’ daughter Faith Hackney feels the same way.
“Where’s the s**t? I’d like to see where the s**t is because there is none on the road,” she said.
Hackney grew up in the park, moved away, and since moved back and lives there with her own two children.
She agrees the septic system needs to be repaired but questions whether Algoma Public Health is overstating the problem. She also questions whether the issue originates with with the new owner or rather the previous owner and the engineers that worked on the system years ago, as well as the MOECC, and APH.
Hackney said she will not be leaving her home on August 31. She said she has nowhere else to go.
“I’m not going to Woman in Crisis or Pauline’s Place . . . that’s what they’ve got for us,” she said.
Hackney was very concerned about the park closing on August 31 because not only would it mean she could possibly lose her trailer – it’s basically a permanent home now and can’t be moved — but also because it could be used as an excuse for her kids to be taken away from her.
“I have everything to lose,” she said.
Park resident Diane Ross put her house up for sale but she doesn't expect to sell it before the closure date and plans to just continue living there.
"My understanding is no one is going to force us off the land right away. I have nowhere to go — I can't sell my home with the state the park is in," she said.
Ross said she has sought counselling from the John Howard Society over the situation.
"I'm waking up in the morning crying. We don't know if we should pack or are they going to fix it?" she said.