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BC Rail

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A WEST Vancouver resident is outraged at BC Rail plans to
begin spraying blackberry bushes growing along a 10-mile
strip of railway track in West Vancouver with a herbicide

this fall.

BC Rail has been issued a
three-year pesticide-use permit
from the B.C. Ministry of En-
vironment Pesticide Control
Branch to spot treat blackberries
along the track right of way runn-
ing from Ambleside to Horseshoe
Bay.

Roundup, 2 glyphosate herbicide
used to kill or inhibit the growth of
perennial weeds in non-crop areas,
will be applied with a truck
mounted sprayer or power hose
and with hand-held back sprayers.

Spraying could begin as early as
September.

But Emma Ross-Awde, 36, who
lives near the tracks on Keith Road

By MICHAEL BECKER
News Reporter

in West Vancouver, save the spray-
ing will present a health hazard to
area residents.

“T don’t think BC Rail has the
tight to do this,’’ she said Wed-
nesday. ‘'There’s a preschool
along the line, the SPCA and hun-
dreds of houses. If there's a wind
blowing, that stuff will get
everywhere,””

Ross-Awde said she intends to
appear with a delegation before
West Vancouver District Council
to petition the municipality to re-

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ject the spraying program.

A BC Rail spokesman said the
program was initiated after the
West Vancouver District Fire
Department appealed to BC Rail
to clear the blackberries crowing
along the track right of way.

BC Rail supervisor of track
standards Dave Broadbent said the
railway has also received com-
plaints of Roval Hudson passen-
gers being injured by the bushes
while leaning out of ihe train's
windows.

The spray permit requires BC
Rail to canvass people in the area
to be treated.

“If people are totally against it,
then we avoid the area,’ Broad-
bent said.

He said the railway company
had an annual right-of-way spray-
ing program for five or six years

TR EE ES

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Page 13

up until the early 19705,

Since then we've been spraying
just 10-feet either side of the track
centre jine’’ Broadbent said.
“There was so much concern in
the early ‘70s, the blanket ap-
proach to spraying has become a
thing of the past.’*

Broadbent said the herbicide is
commonly used by Fraser Valley
farmers and is relatively safe.

“Any herbicide used is so
diluted, to even get near a toxic
dose you'd have to drink (as muciy
as) half of the harbor for dam-
age." he said.

But environmental researcher
Thelma MacAdam questions the
safety of Roundup, a product
developed by the Missouri-based
Montsanto Co.

The herbicide was originally
tested in the U.S. by Industrial

Discover
decorating
ideas
Page 19

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day ‘camp . counsellors);
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of summer memories. &

plans herbicide use in West Vancouver

Biotest. Laboratories (IBL), a divi-
sion of Neleo Chemicals,

“ALL the studies that originally
okayed the product were done by
IBL."* MacAdam said. “The prin-
cipals are now sitting in jail for
fraudulent testing. No thorough,
independent replacement tests have
been dore.”’

Canadian Centre for Occupa-
tionai Health and Safety Studies
research on the toxic properties of
Roundup shows that inhalation of
the glyphosate interferes with the
oxygen carrying capacity of blood,
halts cell division and may cause
liver damage in cases of long ex-
posure.

MacAdam said there is no
specific antidote for Roundup.

“I's baloney that there's abso-
lutely nothing wrong with it,”
Ross-Awde said.

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