3 = Friday, July 8, 1988 - North Shore News ~ ye oe ii, sind hied Health department intensifies search for pollutant's source THE NORTH Shore Health Department has launched an intense water sampling offensive in Deep Cove harbor in an attempt to track down the source of sewage pollution that has kept Panorama Beach closed to public swimming since June 10. North Shore senior public health inspector Bill Kimmett said Wed- nesday the department will take 15 water samples per day across the harbor in its search for a sewage ‘hot spot’. Beach water on the North Shore is normally tested once per week. Though fecal coliform counts have dropped from fast week’s 600 units per 100 millitres of water to 330 on Wednesday, Kimmett said health department investigators and North Vancouver District engineers remain confounded as to the pollution’s source. He said all major sewer lines and pump stations in the area have been exhaustively checked with television cameras for cracks or loose fittings, and dye tests have been performed on a smaller sewer pipe running between the Deep Cove Yacht Club and the cove’s government wharf — all of which have yielded no leaks. By TIMOTHY RENSHAW News Reporter The health department's original theory that land-based pollution was being carried into beach waters by area creeks has also been disproved. Creek coliform tests have revealed some fecals, Kim- mett said, but not enough to indict them as the main coliform carriers. “So now we will move to waters farther out in the bay,’" he said. Starting at the two points at the entrance of Deep Cove harbor, health department investigators will move toward the beach taking three samples from each side of the bay, four from the middle and five from in front of the beach. Tests began Wednesday and will be taken daily until the middle of next week. Kimmett said the saturation water sampling offensive will be similar to the program carried out in 1986, when high fecal coliform counts previously closed Panorama Beach. Between 100 and 200 water samples were taken then, but no pollution source was pinpointed. “There are no guarantees in this,” Kimmett said. ‘‘We might find something and we might not.’’ But in West Vancouver Eagle Harbour Beach was opened late Thursday afternoon after its col- iform count dropped to 176. It had been closed June 17 when its coliform count hit 220. Beaches in the Greater Van- couver Regional District are con- sidered unsafe for swimming if fecal coliform exceeds 200 units per 100 millilitres of water. Both Panorama and Eagle Har- bour suffer from chronic coliform pollution: the former was closed ‘in 1985 and 1986; the latter has been closed to swimming at various times over the past four years. Kimmett said the health department is now virtually certain that land-based pollution is being washed into Eagle Creek during heavy rains and then carried into Eagle Harbour. Rover to explore iake NORTH VANCOUVER’S Can-Dive Services Ltd. will be the first company in the world to dispatch a manned submersible to explore the depths of Crater Lake in Oregon’s Crater Lake Na- tional Park. By TIMOTHY RENSHAW News Reporter Oregon State University has contracted the company’s acrylic- hulled Deep Rover to document geothermal activity in the 250- square-mile lake next month. Jim English, special projects manager for Can-Dive, said the 7,500-pound Rover will be airlifted by a U.S. Army helicopter to the project’s Wizard Island base camp within the crater, which measures approximately six miles across. The underwater survey of the lake, English said, ‘‘will be a ma- jor event. It’s really unique.” Can-Dive is sending a three-man team with the Rover to oversee its operation, monitor the vessel's vital statistics and train three scientists from the university to operate the sub. NEWS photo CAN-DIVE'S Deep Rover will be the world’s first manned submersible to explore Crater Lake in Oregon State. The project is scheduled to begin next month, The project is scheduled to run from Aug. | to 29. English said the Rover, which is capable of reaching depths of up to 3,000 feet, will be operating at the 2,000-foot level in the lake. The $1 million Rover is a solo submersible outfitted with a pair of dexterous robotic arms. It is Ree joins cabinet From page 17 I've got the enforcement side; and i think we have to work together.”’ As to Brian Smith’s concern at the splitting up of the attorney general’s functions, Ree said it was common practice in Canada. “I don’t see anything wrong with it; and I think that it can bode well..,. There (could be) a number of times, under the former system, where the attorney general can be investigating himself.”” The ‘tali MLA says there is a need for integrity in the office of solicitor general ‘‘where you have to have certain independences’’ from’ political considerations. ‘‘! think you have to because there are two’ functions, justice and gov- ernment, and government is sub- ject to the law.’ Ree, a “‘lapsed’’ lawyer, admits it, has been three or four years since he stopped paying fees to remain listed with the Law Society. Asked if he was up to date with changes and developments in the law. over the past few years, Ree said he was, ‘‘because, after all, a great number of the laws are pass- ed by our legislature. “] have never been a barrister, a courtroom lawyer. Most of my legal practice as a solicitor is in the commercial side,’’ he told the News. When asked why he thought he had not been appointed to cabinet since his election in 1979, Ree replied: ‘Maybe because I try and do my job quietly; I don’t seek a lot of public attention, so maybe I didn’t get the same recognition (as others). “I never discussed it with Premier (Bill) Bennett as to why. I did have a number of interesting jobs in government, and at one time was secretary of more com- mittees than any other sitting member,”’ said Ree. He said the resignation of Social Credit’s grande dame, Grace Mc- Carthy, on the eve of the shuffle, did not dampen his elation, ‘‘ex- cept that Grace was a goad friend of mine, and I’m sorry she won’t be around the cabinet table with powered by lead-acid batteries and has a top speed of one knot. Can-Dive developed the Rover over two years at an estimated cost of $1.5 million. Daily cost to lease the vessel is approximately $1,800. Earlier this year, the Rover was used to recover a $400,000 log loader for an Alaskan logging company. Doug Collins. . Editorial Page Home & Garden Mailbox North Shore Now..... “TV Listings What's Going On WEATHER Friday and Saturday, mostly sunny. Highs between 22-25. Second Class Registration Number 3885 Slide biocks Highway 99 A SMALL rock slide blocked a lane of traffic half a mile north of Horseshoe Bay on the Squamish Highway just before 4 a.m. Thursday. There were no injuries. Highway crews took approximately two hours to clear the rock away, Canyon Gardens suites proposed THE DISTRICT of North Vancouver has received an appiication from the company acting for the owner of the Canyon Gardens Restaurant to develop an 83-unit apartment complex on the five- acre property. District municipal planner Kai Kreuchen said Wednesday the apartments, according to the proposal, would be contained in six buildings. The portion of the property along the Capilano River canyon, which represents approximately one acre, would become part of the Greater Vancouver Regional District’s Capilano River Regional Park, he said. } The initia public information meeting for the proposal was held une 28. Kreuchen said reaction to the application ‘at that meeting was generally positive. The application will now go before North Vancouver District Council. Cyclist struck by car, dies AN 18-YEAR-OLD North Vancouver cyclist died July { after be- ing struck by a car at the intersection of First Street and Forbes Avenue June 39. A North Vancouver RCMP spokesperson said Phillip Wesley Baker, of 216 Mathias Road, was riding westbound on First Street at approximately 2:30 a.m. when he failed to negotiate a stop sign and was struck by a Sunshine Cabs car driving on Forbes.” Baker suffered massive head injuries. Police say cab driver Robert Dixon administered first aid at the scene and had revived Baker before he was. jtaken, to Lions Gate Hospital. fian faces arson charge A 39-YEAR-OLD Vancouver man appeared Monday in North Vancouver provincial court to face charges of arson and fraud laid against him in connection with an alleged attempt! to set fire to aa automobile. Jolin Campbell Watt was originally charged jointly with North Vancouver residents Robert Balfour Logan, 22, Erie John Brown, 24, and Margaret Anne Chamberlain, 22, with one count of mischief in connection with a June {1 incident in which a 1974 Jensen Interceptor Coupe, owned by Westminster Credit Union, was alleged to have been set on fire. Watt is also charged jointly with Logan and Brown with fraudulently setting fire to the car, and the Vancouver man is fur- ther charged with misleading a police officer by allegedly reporting the car was stolen when it was not, and one count of fraud after he allegedly attempted to defraud the Westminster Credit Union of an amount over $1,000. Appearing before Judge J.K. Shaw, Watt was remanded tc July 13 to fix a date for {rial on the charges. The other co-accused have been scheduled to appear in North Vancouver provincial court on the same day.