In today’s Lynn Yalley Echo, readeérs will be able ~ te catch the news hap- pening right in their own neighborhood. Featured in the p2per are histerical stories about. pioneer Hasoid Fromme aad. the old Dovercourt Hot mar WV PROJECT TO INSTALL PIPE SYSTEM UNDER CAPILANO RIVER F sherm over waterma A GROUP representing recreational fishermen in B.C. is concerned over possible damage to fish habitat that it says could result from a West Vancouver District project to in- stall a back-up watermain for the municipality under the Capilano River. In a letter to West Vancouver Mayor Don Lanskail, The Steelhead Society of B.C. (SSBC} states that winter steelhead trout in the river could be affected by the pipeline construction and urges the municipality ‘‘to investigate the lower reaches of the Capilano, see if significant numbers of juveniles are present, and perhaps remove those juveniles during the con- struction period.”’ Eric Carlisle, a West Vancouver’ SSBC member, said the society is also extremely concerned about possible destruction of dwindling angling water available downriver from the pipeline site. He said good angling areas be- tween the mouth of Brother’s Creek and the river’s Marine Drive bridges were reduced by flooding in 1981 and 1983 to shallow fast- moving water through which steelhead and salmon migrate without stopping. ““Which of course we couldn't do anything about,"” he said. ‘But what worries us is that good fish- ing water that we now have will be destroyed during the construction of the pipeline.”” nm concerned Carlisle said the society was also concerned about the effects of any blasting done during the project. But officials from both West Vancouver and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans say the con- struction will not adversely affect the river or any fishing areas. West Vancouver recently award- ed the contract to instail the watermain under the Capilano riv- erbed to Langley’s Arctic Coast Construction Ltd., and work is scheduled to begin next week. The project, estimated at ap- proximately $300,000, will involve the installation of 656 feet (190 metres) of 16-inch diameter (460 mm) pipe five feet (1.5 metres) under the riverbed from the Greater Vancouver Regional District’s Capilano reservoir watermain, which runs down Capilano Road. : The pipe will run west from just above the Upper Levels Highway under the river’s bank and connect with the West Vancouver water system on Keith Road. River waters will be diverted around excavation work. And a company spokesman said some blasting would be done, but it would be limited to the river’s bank. West Vancouver engineer Doug Wylie said the pipe is needed as a security back-up to the single watermain currently connecting West Vancouver to its main source of fresh water: the GVRD system. The existing main is approxi- mately 40 years old and connects to the east end of Mathers Avenue. It services all of West Vancouver west to the Cypress Creck area. Eagle Lake supplies water to the extreme western portions of the municipality. Wylie said if anything were to m work happen to the single watermain connection, especially during a period of high water levels in the river, the district would be faced with ‘‘a major headache.”’ The SSBC leticr states that such areas of the river as Keith Road Pool, the Railway Runs and areas immediately upstream from the Woodcroft bridge currenily pro- vide good steelhead trout and coho fishing. States the letter: ‘‘a flood which alters the riverbed is an act of God and cannot be prevented. Howev- er, man-made changes to the riv- erbed, especially man-made changes which harm the fishing potential of the river, must not oc- cur again — the Capilano has had a long and sorry history of man- made alterations to the river harm- ing both the fish habitat and the Ses Fish Page 2