oe

4

Weather:

near 14°C.

Friday and Saturday,
mostly cloudy with a
few showers. Highs

Earthquake:

to help Mexican

West Van woman
spearheads campaign

Friday

10 Lifestyles: 55
Ramblin’ man, “Rider”
Jim Riley rolls into

North Van ta sing the

earthquake victims. blues.

DISTRICT firefighters and conservation officers
from the provincial ministry of th. environment join-
ed forces Thursday in an attempi to determine the
source Of a fuel oil leak into a Lynn Valley creek.

IMOTHY RENSHAW

Fire officials were alerted
to seepage into a_ small
tributary of Hastings Creek
on Wednesday after
Draycott Road resident John
McKinnon called the District
of North Vancouver com-
plaining that an oil slick was
contaminating the small
creek that runs through his
property. = - .

McKinnon said Wednes-
day that oi! had been flow-
ing in the creek all day
Tuesday: “It’s a real mess.
My dog is covered in the
stuff.”

FUEL SAMPLING

Capt. Bert Batt of the
North .Vancouver District
Fire Department's fire
prevention office collected
several litre jars of the fuel
oil on Wednesday. He said
bales of hay had subsequent-
ly been placed in the creek to
collect fuel from the spill be-

. fore any more could flow in-

to Hastings Creek.

The samples, he said
Thursday, had yet to be fully
analyzed.

After an initial investiga-
tion of the fuel leak on
Thursday, environmental
conservation officer Doug
Adolph had been unable to
ascertain the exact source of
the fuel.

OIL DUMPING

“But I would say it is
either from a_ deliberate
dumping of fuel down a

storm sewer or seepage from
a heating oil tank in the
area,”’ he said.

Adolph said an oil tank

MINISTRY of Environment's conservation officer Doug Adolph (left)
and Capt. Bert Batt of the North Vancouver District Fire Department at-

neglected after a household Adolph. Hastings Creek
conversion to some other itself is an active spawning out to attend complaints of waterway. ‘tPeople are

Tide Table
For Pt. Atkinson

Saturday12 0420 12.7

Sunday 13 0525 13.5

Time HtjFt.

110315 11. i.
ae ' bes Classified Ads ......59
1645 14.5 Lifestyles...........55
2255 7.8 Mailbox.............7

Real Estate.........13

Wb aa Sunshine Girl........11
2325 63 Travel............. 54

What's Going On.... .58

125 6.0
1740 14.7
0005 4.7

ministry was regularly called at the latest pollution of that

3 - Friday, October 11, 1985 - North Shore News

heating fuel was likely the
culprit.

The creek, which feeds
directly into Hastings Creek,
is a breeding stream for two
species of salmon and one
species of trout, according to

ground for both salmon and
trout.

As of Thursday, Adolph
said he had been unable to
find any dead fish resulting
from the fuel spill. He added
that the environment

tempt to sniff out the source of a fuel oi leak into a Lynn Valley creek. day.

FISH LIFT FLOPS

Chinook avoid capture

pollutants being dumped in-
to North Shore creeks.

McKinnon, who said he
regularly feeds the fish that
inhabit the affected creek,
shook his head in frustration

always dumping stuff in it
(the creek). 1 think they have
to be made aware that these
creeks support fish and if
they keep dumping garbage
into them the fish are going
to die.’’

The Jeak was reported on Wednesday by a Lynn Valley resident. Adolph
and Batt were unable to find the source of the leak to press time Thurs-

SPAWNING CAPILANO chinook salmon don’t need a
free ride — yet.

After two attempts to seine the chisocks at the river’s
mouth, fisheries officials are satisfied the fish are in no
danger of dying unspawned or spawning where they
shoulda’t.

Unseasonable dry weather has left the Capilano
without sufficient water to enable the salmon to swim up
to their spawning grounds and the federal hatchery.

‘*We found out what we wanted to know,” said hatch-

means the females aren’t in a hurry to get up river. Males

ery manager Eldon Stone. ‘‘There's a lot of chinook and
coho down there. We’re satisfied there is a number of
chincok at the river mouth but they’re in no risk of dy-
ing.’’

About 12 fisheries workers, using a small.motorboat,
set and gathered in a seine net both Wednesday afternoon
and Thursday morning. Wednesday’s netting turned up
one Jone, male chinook, and Thursdays netting turned up
a number of chinook, but they too were all male.

‘We're actually quite relieved,’’ said Stone, ‘because it

usually precede females.””

Stone is now hoping the present, and subsequent,
weather systems will give enough rain to raise the water
level over the Cleveland Dam at Capilano Reservoir.

However, if the rain doesn’t come by mid-week, fish-
eries will be looking to the seine nets again.

Stone estimates the hatchery needs 500 female chinook
to supply the hatchery with sufficient eggs.

To protect both the chinook and the coho a fishing ban
on the Capilano River and river mouth was installed last
week,