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November 10,

$34,
qua

-Canada’s Number. One

Suburban Newspaper

D WEST V

1985 News 985-2131 Classified

ANCOUVER

| ge

Classics
for the

cool

PAGE 15

00 grant battles
kes, floods, spills

Facelift at Seymour:

West Van firm

ts gov't funds

A WEST Vancouver consulting firm has been
awarded $33,850 from the federal government to
develop the world’s first computer software
package to deal with oil spills, earthquakes, and

floods.

Bennett Environmental
Consultants Lid., which was
has been in business for 18
years, specializes in pro-
viding advice and technical
contingency plans to gov-
ernments and industries
around the world on solu-
tions to environmental
Management and protection
problems.

Mark West, BECL office
manager, said Thursday the
computer software being
developed by his company
involved committing a coun-
try or industrial area to
computer mapping into
which the various en-
vironmental parameters and
sensitivities to environmental
disaster would be program-
med.

“One Sarge map would
then be broken down into
between 30 and 70 smaller
maps,’’ West said. ‘‘Factors
such as fish populations,
earthquake probability, pro-
ximity to ofl and resultant oil
spills, and all other critical
environmental features of an
area would be fed into the
program and highlighted on
the various maps.”’

According to West, such
information, both instantly
visible and always up to date
with the addition of a cons-
tant flow of new data, would
be invaluable in helping
countries and industries
make instant evaluation and
effective contingency plans
in the event of environmen-
tal emergencies.

BECL has been working
on the program for six mon-
ths, West said, and he
predicted it would be ready
to market in 1986.

Though most Western
countries have at least
rudimentary plans to combat
oil spills and other en-
vironmental disasters, Third
World countries, according
to West, were not similarily
prepared and consequently
would be the major market
for BECL’s new program.

Egypt and Thailand, he
added, would be the West
Vancouver company’s first
customers.

Cost of the program (o a
country would depend on
the amount of basic infor-
mation that country had
thus far accumulated on
itself, according to West: ‘A
country such as Venezuela
that already has maps of its
especially . environmental
sensitive areas committed to
paper would probably pay
around $100,000, but those
countries without any maps
or relevant information
compiled would be facing a
cost closer to $250,000."'

The federal grant to
BECL is being provided
under the federal Industrial
and Regional Development
Program. All funds are pay-
able once the project is in
operation.