May 24, 1989 News 985-2131 Classified 986-6222 Distribution 986-1337 52 pages 25¢ INDIAN ARM RESIDENTS PROTEST OVER EXPANSION PROPOSAL Fi plans move further north CONTROVERSY OVER an Indian Arm fish farm has been reignited with plans by the farm’s ownership to move the operation farther up Indian Arm and expand its production sixfold. Pacific Aquaculture Ltd. is cur- rently awaiting final Vancouver Port Corp. (VPC) approval to move the farm from its present site about five kiiometres north of Deep Cove to an arca midway be- tween Best Point and Caldwell Beach, approximately two kilometres further north in Indian Arm. In addition to the move, the company plans to expand the farm from four to 16 pens and increase production from the current 60 tons every two years to between 150 and 200 tons every eur. Orlomah Beach resident Charles Addison, who spearheasied the protest last Nevember to keep the farm from expanding at its current location, said Indian Arm residents were assured that a moratorium on all new fish farm licences in Indian Acm had been instituted by VPC until the Crown corporation had completed a recreational inventory of the area and an environmental impact study of such commercial uses as fish farms on the slow- flushing Indian Arm waters. “Then we get this bomb drop- ped on us,”’ he said. ‘'Everybody around here is downright mad." Approximately 85 Indian Arm residents signed a petition pro- testing the farm’s expansion plans last year on the grounds that it threatened Indian Arm water qual- ity and tht recreational value and natural beauty of the area. The farm and its expanding on- sight operation also conflicted with area single-family zoning. Following the outcry from resi- dents, Pacific Aquaculture Ltd. was advised in a March 23 letter from North Vancouver District to bring the land-based portion of its operation into compliance with the zoning or move. The company subsequently ap- pealed to the district for alternative Indian Arm sites that would permit a fish farm and the new site was suggested. District deputy chief building in- spector Peter Olynyk said the new site, which is zoned parks, recre- ation and open space, allows for fish farm use. But he said the district has in- formed both the Port Corporation and Pacific Aquaculture that no upland development will be allow- ed at the site. Deitmar Setzer, VPC manager By TIMOTHY RENSHAW News Reporter of property administration, said that while VPC will not look at any new fish farm proposals for Indian Arm until the secreation study has been completed, the Port Corporation considers Pacific's new farm {uv be a relocation of an existing ‘arm not a new operation or a new licence. The new site, he said, was a good one because it was out of the way and did not conflict with area resident use as the previous site had. Pacific Aquaculture general manager Jim Malamas said the company had decided to move, at a cost of $40,000, because of con- tinuing resident opposition to the farm and its plans for expansion, and because the new larger farm will be more economically viable. He said the neighbors were neg- ative about the farm ‘tand we don't need that. We are positive guys." Concerns over pollution from the farm, he said, were unfounded. Malamas added that his farm has approximately 100,000 fish that must be relocated to the new farm this month or they will not survive, Pacific, which was required to have provided area residents with written notification of its plans to move, thus far has approval from the district and the Canadian Coasi Guard and is awaiting final approval from VPC and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Fisheries biologist Bruce Clark said the farm and its new location “have satisfied our concerns re- garding the guidelines on such things as flushing, water depth and clearance.”” VPC spokesman Barbara Dug- gan said the Port Corporation will await response from area residents to the fish farm move before gran- ting final approval. Though Malamas has said op- position to his company’s fish farm is largely the result of per- sonal acrimony towards his com- pany from some area residents, Addison said the opposition is not to Pacific Aquaculture itself, but rather to the expanded use of a fish farm without proper prior study of its impact.