August 11, 1989 News 985-2131 Classified 986-6222 Distribution 986-1337 72 pages 25¢

SAMPLES FAiL TO LINK SEASPAN WITH THE PROBLEM

NEWS photo Tom Burley

PAINT OVERSPRAY has coated cars in the Pemberton industrial area
several times in the past year. Stu Simpson (left) and Kart Barthel (right)

examine a paint speckled hood.

PAINT OVERSPRAY HITTING
PARKED CARS IN NORTH VAN

EXASPERATED OWNERS of vehicles parked in the
Lower Pemberton area ef North Vancouver are fed up with
the recurring, unscheduled paint jobs their cars and trucks
have been receiving as a result of industrial spray paint
drifting through the neighborhood during the past year.

Widespread paint overspray first
hit cars and trucks in August last
year. Paint coated vehicles again in
May of this year and most recently
on July 27.

While the owners of the dam-
aged vehicles have been pointing
fingers at Seaspan’s Vancouver
Shipyards as the source of the
paint problem, an independent
analysis of paint samples taken
from cars has ‘ailec io directly link
the company with the problem.

In September Seaspan hired
B.C. Research to monitor for
overspray in the area.

Said Vancouver Shipyards Co.
Ltd. spokesman Bruce Tennant:
“‘When the May incident came, we
took samples from cars and com-
pared the paint from the cars with
paint we were using at Vancouver
Shipyards. The chemical makeup is
of two different paints. We con-
cluded the May overspray wasn’t
ours. We don’t know where it’s
coming from. There’s a heavy
concentration of body shops and
industrial activity in the area and
they’re all spraying paint.’’

Tennant said samples taken
from the most recent overspray in-
cident are still being analyzed by
B.C. Research.

But in the meantime, the Greater

Vancouver Regional District pollu-
tion control branch has ordered
North Vancouver's Seaspan Inter-
nationai Ltd. to apply for a Waste
Management Act permit to control
the company’s industrial paint
spraying activity.

Said Allan Buch, president of
EEC Industries, a sign manufac-
turing company located near the
Seaspan operation, ‘‘Our air con-
ditioning stacks on top of the
building face the shipyard and
they’re covered in white paint from
overspray. My BMW has had to be
cut polished three times in the past
year, Thirty-one cars from here
had to be cut polished in
September. But it’s more than
that, it’s a health hazard. We all
like our cars, but I don’t want to
inhale this.””

B.C. Rail employees who park
their cars and trucks along Welch
Street, found themselves with
modified paint jobs July 27.

Said Karl Barthel, whose one-
month-old 1989 Chev pickup truck

See Paint
Page 3

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