THE

GICE OF HOR

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N. VETERANS from last year’s Variety Club fund raiscr are 15-year-old Wendy Miles () an

A BOWEN Island resident has launched an appeal against a
Waste Management Branch permit approved last month for
the Snug Cove Improvement District (SCID) that will allow
the daily discharge of 20,000 gallons of island septic tank-
quality sewage into Queen CharJoite Channel.

But SCID officials and the
island’s Greater Vancouver
Regional District representative say

the permit, along with a sewer fa- _

cility, is vital to solving the in-
creasingly hazardous sewage pollu-
tion problem in Snug Cove harbor
and will be the first step in plugg-
ing Bowen Island into a sewer
system.

The island, according to GVRD
representative Gail Taylor, ‘‘will
be faced with a very serious health

‘problem if there is no sewer in-
stalled by summer.’’

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW
News Reporter

She said the permit to discharge
20,000 gallons of septic tank-
quality sewage per day 100 metres
offshore and 50 metres deep in
Queen Charlotte Channel will
solve the immediate problem of
sewage seeping into Snug Cove
from inefficient area septic tanks.

Such seepage has resulted in past
Snug Cove fecal coliform counts
that have ranged into the millions

king their. dogs Kona and Hector on the Variety Club watk:with more than 100 at

of units per 100 millilitres of
water. Recreational beaches are
closed to swimming if they exceed
200 units per 100 millilitres of
water.

Chief North Shore public health
inspector Bill Kimmett agreed that
Snug Cove is polluted. He said
Wednesday his department is in
favor of a sewer project for the
island.

Estimated cost of building the
primary treatment facility, which
would include a 20,000-gallon sep-
tic tank, is $250,000. A secondary
treatment facility would cost an
additional $100,000.

Lawyer John Rich, who filed the
appeal against the permit with the
Environmental Appeals Board
Feb. 10, said Wednesday he has
serious concerns about the amount

abeth' Hewalo, 13, who walked ‘more th:
ts whose goal is to ralse over $3,000

of septic tank effluent discharge
allowed under the permit and
where channel currents will carry
the effluent once it has been
discharged.

“This is typical septic tank ef-
fluent,’' Rich said. ‘‘lt is less than
primary treated and it can’t even
be effectively disinfected. I think it
is really inappropriate for them to
solve one problem by creating a
greater problem.”’

He added that no water current
studies had been done to determine
where the sewage will go and
estimated that, even after dilution,
fecal coliform counts of 4,500
units per 100 millilitres of water
could be carried back into Snug
Cove and Deep Bay.

SCID originally received a per-
mit last October from the regional

Waste Management Branch to
discharge just under 20,000 gallons
of effluent daily into Queen
Charlotte Channel, which runs be-
tween Bowen Island and Horse-
shoe Bay. Just under 9,000
gallons, however, was permitted to
be septic tank-quality. Discharge
over that amount was required to
have secondary treatment.

But the Bowen Island organiza-
tion, which represents commercial
and residential properties around
Snug Cove, appealed to director of
Waste Management Robert
Ferguson, who subsequently
granted their original request to
discharge 20,000 gallons of septic
tank-quality effluent daily.

Ferguson said Thursday he over-

See Sewer
Page 3