PINE}VOOD PLACE CONFRONTATIONS aa NORTH VANCOUVER City staff members were instructed by council Wednesday to prepare a bylaw supplementing current provincial legislation on commercial use of herbicide and pesticide spraying in the municipality. The move follows confronta- tions earlier this month and last month between residents of the §0-unit Pinewood Place townhouse complex in North Vancouver and Thomson Spray Services, acting for the Greater Vancouver Hous- ing Corporation (GVHC). In proposing the motion, Ald. Bill Bell persuaded council to send a letter to the GVHC expressing dismay over the dealings with ‘the By MARTIN MILLERCHIP Contributing Writer legitimate concerns of the residents of Pinewood,”* and recommending a more consultative process when dealing with tenant concerns on the use of herbicides and pesticides. Bell noted that, while the GVHC had promised to withhold spraying for a year and establish a more icide legisiati ae consultative process, it was ‘“‘im- portant to express our concern (and) what happened down there was very cavalier.”’ Bell also suggested that staff members should include in their investigation the commercial use of spraying in hotels and restaurants, which he maintained happens without signage warning workers and patrons. Ald. Barbara Sharp expressed concern as to whether the city would be able to establish any con- trols over spraying. She pointed out that the Municipal Act would null and void any city bylaw that 3 - Friday, August 26, 1988 - North Shore News eS teas thom oe ee Oe ee om ee hh whty «O SUPPICMCHHIL on went beyond existing provincial legislation. She also pointed out that only federal regulations govern what is actually ‘‘safe’? to use as a her- bicide or pesticide, and that there is no consistent way to monitor whether spraying is carried out ac- cording to instructions concerning correct dilution. In an interesting footnote, Ald. Siella Jo Dean revealed that she had discovered from city licensing staff that Thomson Spray Services took out a city business licence subsequent, and not prior to, the spraying at Pinewood Place. NEWS photo Cindy Bellamy ENJOYING THE last days of freedom from school, these students soak up the sun and have fun at the same time. This volleyball game was cap- tured at Ambleside Park in West Vancouver recently. DEEP COVE’S Panorama Beach remained closed to press time Thursday, even though results from the latest tests showed pollution below the maximum permitted level con- sidered safe for swimming of 200 fecal coliform units per 100 millilitres of water, Rick Kwan, the North Shore’s senior public health inspector, said fecal coliform in Panorama waters had dropped to 165, according to test results released Thursday morning. But he said pollution warning signs would remain posted until the coliform levels have stabilized. “There is no point in removing the signs one day and replacing them the next,’’ Kwan said. Daily coliform levels are based on a logarithmic average tabulated from a 30-day test period. The beach, which suffers from chronic coliform pollution, was reclosed Aug. 18 after coliform hit 238. Panorama had been reopened July 26 after overall fecal coliform levels dropped to 130. The beach had been closed the previous 47 days because of pollution. Kwan said health department investigators are continuing to take three samples daily from beach water and six samples daily from a By TIMOTHY RE 's Reporter creek and two storm sewers that empty into the southwest corner of the cove insan attempt to track down the pollution source. Though Panorama has been closed in past years because of high coliform levels no_ single source of the pollution has ever been found. The current search is being con- centrated along 4 storm sewer in the Roxbury Place area and along a storm sewer and creek in the Cliffmont Road and = Raeburn Street area. Kwan said over 350 tests had been taken from the three sources since saturation testing began in early July. Coliform the readings from Classified Ads... Home & Garden. Horoscopes . Mailbox ..... North Shore Now.... TV Listings... What's Going On. WEATHER Fridzy, suany with a few clouds. Saturday, mostly sunny. Highs in the low 20°S€. 2.17 Second Class Registration Number 3885 High rise public hearing to be set From page 1 interest (in high rise development) in that area.’ Ald. Mary Segal echoed the same concerns. ‘‘We do not have a plan for that area yet,’’ she said. “Tt will increase traffic.” Ald. Craig Clark disagreed. ‘‘It does not impact many residents at all. ! am in favor of giving citizens a chance to speak at a public hear- ing.”* Ald. Bill Rodgers was also in support of moving forward with the application: ‘‘There is a need for this type of seniors facility (and) if we defer it too long, the North Shore Winter Club won't be there,’’ he said. In casting the deciding vote in favor of moving to prepare a bylaw for a comprehensive development zone, and thus allow- ing a public hearing to be set, Mayor Marilyn Baker said she was considering the efforts of the Winter Club to solve their finan- cial problems but at the same time saw that the development was at one of the district’s busiest in- tersections and intruded into and cast a shadow over Bridgman Park. “From a planning perspective this should not be going forward,”’ she said, ‘‘but it deserves fair con- sideration.”* tests, Kwan said, had ranged from 20 up to 16,000, but no single sewage source has been pin- pointed. The search this year by North Vancouver District cagineers and health department investigators, has been underway since the beach was initially closed June 10. Health experts questioned by council NORTH VANCOUVER District Council was able to ques- tion some of the experts investigating the high fecal col- iform counts around Panorama Beach Monday. Dr. Brian O’Connor, medical health officer, Geoff Marsh from the Greater Vancouver Regional District testing laboratories, and John Bremner, director of Engineering Services for the district, were all on hand at the re- quest of Mayor Marilyn Baker to advise on the ongoing efforts to trace the source or sources of pollution in the waters around the beach, which was closed for swimming last week for the second time this year. By MARTIN MILLERCHIP Contributing Writer The three experts could only confirm what was not likely to be the culprit, rather than offer solu- tions and courses of action. Marsh noted that his fab has tested ‘some 350 to 400 samples’’ from Deep Cove in the last two months while a more normal rate of testing would have been twice a week. Bremner suggested that the pat- tern of test resultsrules out a sewer leak, and that inspection and dye testing of the four septic tanks in the cove and the sewer lines con- firmed this. “One of the problems that we are experiencing in all of this is that the readings we are getting are incredibly erratic,’’ Bremner pointed out. ‘One day we'll have less than 20, and the next day we might have a reading up into the 100s and even into the thousands and then its back down again and back up again.’ Beaches in the GVRD are con- sidered unsafe for swimming if the fecal coliform count exceeds 200 units per 100 millilitres of water, O’Connor noted that sampling in Deep Cove had begun in January this year and that ‘‘the results from January through April were well below normal values, so what happens when May comes along | don’t know.”’ Ald. Ernie Crist drew his own conclusions and proposed a resolu- tion to the federal government that would require mandatory use of holding tanks by all pleasure craft. Council passed the motion unanimously, and went on to allocate $15,000 from its reserve fo pay for an immediate consultant's report on the pollution problem.