The five band chiefs of the Nicola Valley First Nations have walked away from a government-sponsored scientific review of the land application of biosolids, after their participation in the study was relegated to the status of “observers,” said Lower Nicola Band Chief Aaron Sam.

The review was announced by the provincial government in September of last year, after the Nicola Valley First Nations signed their own moratorium on the land use of all biosolids until more stringent scientific review had taken place.

But despite having met “many times” over the last six months, the government and the First Nations groups were unable to come to an agreement on the role played by First Nations people in the review, said Sam.

An original draft plan for the review called for three groups — a technical committee comprised of scientists to do the testing, a principles table which would be comprised of the provincial government and First Nations chiefs, and an advisory committee which would act as a liaison between the technical and advisory committees. That plan was abandoned by the provincial government when the two sides weren’t able to agree on the make-up of those two committees, said Sam.

“They’re going to proceed ahead with something completely different. They relegated us, the First Nations, as simply an observer to the entire process,” explained Chief Sam. “We have, and have had concerns about the First Nations not being meaningful participants in the process.”

John Rustad, Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, worked with the Nicola Valley First Nations chiefs and said the government offered the groups a chance to be “full partners” in the review, but that offer was ultimately rejected by the First Nations groups.

“We said… we’re willing to have you as full partners in the field work, and the review that needed to be done, they would have whoever they wanted to be a part of [the field work], that information would come to the principles table to review, and then this would be a key piece to feed into the provincial review,” explained Rustad.

On April 4, the Ministry of Environment announced its intentions to release the findings from the scientific review as early as the end of May, 2016. Despite the breakdown between the government and First Nations groups, Rustad said the timeline of the review will not be affected.

“We are hopeful and optimistic that we’ll be able to do the sampling and have that work come forward, as well as a review of all the biosolids literature,” said Rustad

“We really need to get the work done, we need to be able to have independent scientists and professionals to go out and give us this information that is critical for determining what we should be doing in the future with biosolids to make sure it’s safe,” Rustad said.

In the meantime, the moratorium enacted by the First Nations groups almost a year ago will continue to stay in effect, said Sam.

“No, I don’t anticipate any changes to our moratorium,” Chief Sam told the Herald.

“We see the value of science in being able to move forward this discussion to look at solutions when it comes to the issue of biosolids,” said Chief Sam. “But we feel that the science needs to be impartial, and needs to be completely separate from industry, and we’re not confident that the process the province is moving forward with is an impartial process.”

As the provincial government moves forward with a full scale review of the organic matter recycling regulation — which regulates the land-use of biosolids — this year, Chief Sam isn’t ruling out being involved in that review process.

“We’ll be looking at all our options. There [was] the moratorium declared last May, but we’re meeting and discussing the next steps we’re going to take to ensure that the application of biosolids in the Nicola Valley doesn’t continue,” said Sam.

The Nicola chiefs — including representation from the Lower Nicola, Upper Nicola, Coldwater, Shackan and Nooaitch Indian bands — have opposed the use of biosolids, citing environmental and health impacts.