mes roe alt ee ges 2 August 35, 1988 NEWS photo Mike Waketield .. HITE SPOT waiter Tony Bukowsky takes his shift on the picket line at the Lons- daJe Avenue restaurant. Workers at the unionized White Spots have been on strike since Aug. 27. The uaion is asking for a 50¢-per-hour wage boost over one year. | Boaters RESIDENTS ALARMED OVER CONTAMINATION OF CREEKS RESIDENTS IN the Woodlands area of Deep Cove are alarmed over the increasing pollution of their drinking water. At the end of July, the North Shore Health Department posted signs advising residents who use Allan Creek as a fresh water source to pre-boil and disinfect with bleach all water for drinking, brushing tecth, bathing or washing food until further notice. And the North Shore’s chief public health inspector Bill Kim- mett said Tuesday another sign advising residents to pre-boil water from any of the area’s creeks will soon be posted. The warnings follow an April 6 to Aug. 16 health department test of water from Granger, Ostler, Sunshine and Allan creeks that found levels of coliforms, in- cluding fecals, in creek waters ranging from two to over 3,000 units per 100 millilitres of water. B.C. drinking water standards permit no coliform in drinking water. Coliforms are micro-organisms that can indicate the presence of disease-causing pathogens in water. The source of the elevated col- iform counts is unknown, but senior health inspector Rick Kwan speculated that it could result, in part, from wildlife, hikers or dogs in the area. Because of raw water’s potential for contamination, Kimmett said, the health department advises the public to avoid drinking untreated water from any source. Approximately 70 North Van- couver District households at the northeast end of Indian River Drive and an additional 12 in the Sunshine wharf area get their fresh water from creeks. Area resident Don Smith said the pollution situation “is in- tolerable. If I didn’t pay taxes, then I would accept that you take your chances, but when you do pay (axes and you don’t even have a reliable source of drinking water...l mean that’s one of the things you belong toa city for.” But North Vancouver District's municipal manager Mel Palmer said Woodlands residents were well aware that the area was not servic- ed by district water or sewer before they purchased their properties. He said creek water quality pro- blems resurface every year, to varying degrees, when water levels SS PS Se drop during the summer. Capital costs to extend water services to the area, he said, would be $1.5 million, or approximately $18,750 per household. “And,” he said, ‘‘it would not be practical or reasonable to expect the rest of the district to pay for the extension when the people knew that when they bought their property it was not hooked up to district water and sewer."’ Smith, who has lived near Fire Lane Number Four along Indian River Drive for the past four years, shares a 1,000-gallon holding tank of Allan Creek water with a dozen other households in the area. As a result of the health department warning, Smith said, Allan Creek water users now haul water in from areas of the district plugged into the Greater Van- couver Water District system, which services the three North Shore municipalities and its member municipalities. He said he adds bleach to his water for rudimentary chlorina- tion. Smith blamed creek pollution on increased local development. ““As the Seymour area gets big- ger our problems are going to get worse,” he said. Resident suspicions that sewage was leaching into Allan Creek from the Seymour Mountain resort sewage treatment plant have prov- ed unfounded, according to B.C. environment officials. The facility is licensed to discharge 14,960 gallons of sec- ondary treated sewage daily into Francis Creek, which is just west of Allan Creek. But waste management officer Harvey Maxwell said the plant has been checked and no seepage into Allan Creek was found. Smith complained that nothing had been done to rectify the Allan Creek situation beyond advising people to boil and chlorinate their water, But Palmer said the district was reviewing the Woodlands situation and looking at such alternatives as creating another water source for the residents or purifving their current source.