Exit the Bonnabelle-il

The Saga of The Bonnabelle, Chapter Two.

The beautiful old former
North Vancouver ferry had
fallen imto the hands of a
kind of elder yippie named
Joe Land, who had torn the
superstructure away but left
the wheel poised 12 feet in
the air, where he steered
from ai chair mounted
precariously on a_jerry-
rigged wooden tower.

In 1974 and 1975, par-
ticularly, the Bonnabelle
served as a kind of Noating
Stage, upon which many a
gleeful party was held. There
was almost always some kind
of a wild man who could play
the piano that stood on the

naked deck.

As often as not, people
would bring along guitars
and even amplifiers, which
were hitched to the
generator down in the hold
beside the huge. ancient
Buda diesel engine.

it was a perfect name for a
boat engine — a Buda. It
evoked images of solid,
cheery, eternal Buddhas,
which would never fail you,
never even think of conking
out.

People danced happily on
the decks, the music blared,
Jim Land perched like some
kind of red-feathered bird on
his wooden chair up above

the guests, the spray from
the bow would send rain-
bows whispering across
English Bay. Wherever she
went, the boat was instantly

recognized as being perhaps
the ultimate example of
West Coast funkiness.

Ah, sigh. Good times.

1 was along for a few of
those rides. We'd chug up to
the end of Indian Arm, but
instead of trying to drop
anchor (if you can find any
place shaliow enougb), the
good captam would simply
go to sleep on the deck and
let the old ferry steer herself
back down the Arm, being

gently carried along by the
It could be quite mystical

_— as though the old vessel

knew the waters so well she

- really could steer herself. Of

course it was just that Jim

Land understood the
currents. He could get away
with that sort of thing.

The Bonnabelle might
have served as a fun-time
vessel for many more years,
except that Jim became
obsessed with trying to
preserve some of the antique
buildings that were being
tora down in False Creek, to
make way for modem town
houses and condominiums.

Obviously, anyone who
would have bought the
Bonnabelle was a fan of fine
old things. And there were
amazing timbers to be found
in some of those old fac-
tories that were being tom
down.

Jim decided that one of
them, the Vancouver Iron
and Engineering Works

Toxic garbage problems
mounting in North Van

By CHRIS LLOYD

A total lack of local facilities to cope with the
dumping of toxic wastes and any type of garbage
beyond everyday household refuse has North
Vancouver businesses and industries disposing of
their garbage in a variety of imaginative ways.

But just about everyone is
agreed that none of the ways
is satisfactory and is nothing
more than a _ stop-gap
solution to a problem that
will mevitably have to be
faced by various goverament
levels.

Since District bylaws
dictate that almost
everything from rocks and
soil to abandoned cars and
toxic substances are illegal
on the Premier Street
Landfill dump, industries are
trymg cverything from
having thew junk collected
by expensive private con.
tractors to shipping tt across
the continent) and cven
stockpiling it until a solution
cventually appears.

And an unknown nsumbcr
of people are dealing with

the problem by = illegally
dumping olfs and tox
wastes into ditches, ac
cording to a spokesman at
the focal offiee of the
Federal Eenviroamental
Protectton Sctvices

Ihe size of the problem

Complete,

began to become apparent
to North Van  Dristrict
council members two wecks
ago during a discussion of
the new Waste Removal
Bylaw.

Alderman Peter Powell
undertook to find out just
what facilities are available
for disposing of toxic wastes

and his report will be
considered by council
Tuesday.

Meanwhile, he has told

the News: “There are only
three outfits who can even
handle such things. I knew
the answer before 1 even
started but didn't want to go
shooting off at half cock 7
Smithrite disposals, who
use the Premier site on a
regular basis, say they have
expheintly informed = their
customers of what garbage ts
acceptable and rely on thew

chents «integrity Uhat- other
matenals do not find thesr
wayinto the contamers
Amony thea customers as
Dillingham Conmstructron
who regularly have to

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dispose of demolition
materials, which is among
the many wastes banned
from the landfill site.

Auto body shops have
Particular problems getting
rid of paint thinners, waste
oils and other chemicals and
Len Macht, of Crash Pad
Collision, says his business
had accumulated quite a
stockpile up to recently
when they found a firm that
dunops it in Langicy.

But he describes disposal
as “a monstrous problem”
and suspects that some body
shops dump their wastes on
areas such as road
allowances.

Disposal of PCBs (poly-
chlorinated biphenyl) is a
problem for all industnes
that use transformers. Plant
manager of North Van's
Canadian QOccidental
(Hooker Chemicals) Bran
Thorpe says they used to
ship chemical wastes to
Oregon, where they were
ncincrated, votil the
Oregon plant closed

Hooker currently has a
dramload of PCB's awaitmg
disposal and had welded a
steel case around it while it is
being stored. Thorpe says
such drums will probably
have to be freighted down to
the company’s plant in
Tacoma, Washington, and
from there they would be
shipped across the continent

to Niagara for eventual
burning.
He comments on the

overall problem of dumping
industnal waste: “I think
there should be a facility in
BIC. either a burning
fdcility or a containment
facility of some kind which
‘will not allow anything to get
out within a reasonable
distance of the major
centres.”

Smithrite operations
manager Berme Berger
agrees, saying that nobody
knows how to dispose of
chemicals since the Oregon
fandfiill site closed m = the
summer.

CONTINUED ON PAGE A8

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building, was definitely too
priceless to be bulldozed to
make way for an inner city
housing development. no
matter how skookum.

So he called a press
conference on board the
Bonnabelle, chugged the old
boat up to the rickety dock
behind the V.I.E.W.
building, and marched
ashore, waving a fistful of
money that he'd just
borrowed from the bank.
The idea was to try to buy off
the wrecker's crew.

It didn’t work, I'm afraid.
All that really happened.
apart from the huge old
building being destroyed as
scheduled was that Jim Land
earned the enmity of City
Hall.

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whatsoever, but it wasn't
much more than a few
months later that someone
pulled the plug where the
Bonnabelle was tied up, at

- the end of False Creek, near

Main Street, and the
automatic bilge pump
stopped working. Jim was
out of town at the time.
When he got back, it was to
find the beloved old vessel
on the bottom.

That should be a sad-
enough ending, but it gets
worse. Contractors came
along aud plowed mud and
concrete and debris over the
hulk, smoothed it all out,
and paved it, creating a
parking lot on top of the
Bonnabeile's bones.

How’s that for an in-
glorious finale?

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