The City of Trail is basking in a five-bloom rating and a unique recognition for stewardship following the 2018 Communities in Bloom awards announced in Strathcona, AB on Saturday.
The Silver City received a bronze rating, five blooms, and a special mention for “Teck Environmental Stewardship and Financial Support,” while Castlegar came out the winner in the Class of Champions (small) against Trail, Ashcroft and Kinistino SK.
Back in July, volunteer judges Cliff Lacey and Dr. Cynthia Boyd made a visit to Trail to evaluate criteria that included the overall contributions of municipal council and departments, as well as industry, businesses and the private sector in regards to six categories: Tidiness, Environmental Action, Heritage Conservation, Urban Forestry, Landscape and Floral Displays.
Notably, this was the first-time Lacey and Boyd had been to Trail.
Following their evaluation, the volunteer judges noted the smelter’s history and in “the ensuing years there was much environmental damage done to the area.”
What led to the special mention is the judges’ acknowledgement of Teck’s multi-layered approach to undoing the damage from those early years of operation.
Related story here: Blooming judges arrive
Related story here: Judges get good first impression
“Teck monitors lead levels of residents of the area and undertakes ground remediation if needed, it carefully manages water consumption and effluent quality, intercepting and cleaning ground water contamination from historical abuse, and operates a flue scrubbing system to extract harmful pollutants from its ‘smoke stacks,’” they wrote.
“Teck does all of this and also supports the CiB efforts in Trail: they plant conifers to screen plant operations from the highway, planting a variety of trees to green and stabilize slopes along the river bank below the smelter building and trees to remove contaminants from the soil on the hillsides around Trail.”
For a complete list of the results and the electronic copy of the Communities in Bloom magazine, please visit www.communitiesinbloom.ca.
Communities in Bloom is a Canadian non-profit organization committed to fostering civic pride, environmental responsibility and beautification through community involvement and the challenge of a national program, with focus on the enhancement of green spaces. The pride, sense of community and feeling of accomplishment generated through participation are visible in communities across Canada.
Communities are evaluated using a “bloom” rating determined by the total score of the evaluation, with 82 per cent and higher being awarded five blooms.