UFV alumnus opens North America’s first mobile, modular soil-washing facility

  • August 14, 2026

Tomorrow’s infrastructure could be built with resources once considered waste. Whether the project is a hospital or a highway, construction requires soil to be excavated and managed. However, when that soil is contaminated, it is classified as waste. That is, until now: a new facility in Chilliwack is offering an alternative.

Four years ago, UFV alumnus Mike Hofer was looking down into a landfill filled with debris and excess soil and thought, “This is crazy. There’s got to be a better way to do this.”

A smiling man stands at an active industrial construction site wearing a white hard hat, navy jacket, and black high-visibility safety vest with bright yellow reflective stripes. Behind him, large red-and-white material processing and conveyor equipment stretches across the site, surrounded by gravel piles, construction vehicles, concrete blocks, and electrical equipment. Dark, forested mountains rise in the distance, partially obscured by low clouds and mist beneath an overcast sky.

As principal of Headlands Environmental Services, Mike, who earned a Bachelor of Arts with a physical geography major at UFV in 1998, set out to recover resources normally considered waste. In partnership with the local Indigenous community of Shxwhá:y Village, he brought North America’s first mobile, modular soil-washing facility to Chilliwack, BC.

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