Serving the Cowichan Valley
Excavation and drainage work in Cowichan Bay
Clay ground, farmland designation and a floodplain — three constraints that decide most of what happens on a Cowichan Bay site.
Cowichan Bay sits on ground the Cowichan Valley Regional District describes as highly impervious clay soils, and about 70 per cent of the plan area outside the water sits inside the Agricultural Land Reserve. Duncan Excavating plans drainage, fill and soil removal here around both facts.
Cowichan Bay is the hardest ground in this service area to guess at from a description. Two properties a few hundred metres apart can sit on entirely different material, and the designation on the title changes what may legally be done with the soil that comes out.
Clay is slower to work than the sand and gravel of the valley floor, drainage runs need more fall than the ground naturally offers, and Agricultural Land Reserve designation adds a statutory waiting period before fill or soil removal can begin. All three show up in a quote here.
Clay, slope and where the water ends up
The Cowichan Valley Regional District's own community plan for this area states that much of it is underlain by highly impervious clay soils, and that the combination of high water volumes and removal of vegetation, particularly on steep slopes, creates conditions conducive to accelerated erosion and landslide. That is an unusually direct statement for a planning document and it is worth taking at face value. In practice it means drainage design comes first here, vegetation is removed in stages rather than all at once on a slope, and a perimeter drain needs fall that clay will not give up easily.
Farmland rules and the floodplain
About 70 per cent of the land in the plan area, excluding water, is inside the Agricultural Land Reserve, with just over half of that classed as active farmland — the highest proportion of any community in this service area. Placing fill or removing soil on those parcels requires a Notice of Intent to the Agricultural Land Commission at least 60 days beforehand, at a fee of $150, and construction and demolition waste, asphalt, glass, treated wood and unchipped lumber are prohibited in fill outright. The Koksilah Village area sits within the floodplain of the Cowichan and Koksilah rivers over an aquifer the regional district describes as highly vulnerable to contamination.
Anyone planning work on a Cowichan Bay property is welcome to request a quote, and the clay and the designation get assessed on site rather than assumed.
Excavation services
- Lot Clearing and GradingBrush, stump and topsoil removal, then grading to drawing levels across the Cowichan Valley. CVRD recycling centres do not accept stumps or land-clearing debris.
- Perimeter Drains and DitchingPerimeter drains, ditching and service trenches across the Cowichan Valley, where groundwater on the valley floor sits at a median of 2.4 metres.
Nearby service areas
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Duncan Excavating quotes excavation across the Cowichan Valley after a site visit.