NVC strikes environment committee NORTH VANCOUVER City Council approved Monday night the establishment of a city task force on the environment. By Pamela Lang Contributing Writer A $5,000 budget has been estab- lished for a 10-member committee to examine the North Vancouver District. environmental task force report, which was released late last year, and provide input on it from a city standpoint. A district-based committce ex- amined similar issues last year and made recommendations for en- vironmental initiatives to district council. Their report will be the city committee’s base for discus- sion. Ald. Barbara Sharp, who initi- ated the idea of establishing a city community task force, said that after two years of fighting to have an environment committee estab- lished, it was a pleasure to see it before council for a decision. “This is a postive step and a forward-thinking step,’’ she said, adding that input from ‘‘our citi- zens” on local priorities is neces- sary to give council proper direc- tion, But Ald. Rod Clark said that “the best thing we can do for the environment is to save a whole lot of gas, a whole lot of paper and a whole lot of duplicated effort.” Clark, who was alone in oppos- ing Sharp’s motion, said the district. recommendations provide enough direction for city council without a city re-examination. “We're already doing a lot of these things,’’ said Ald. Stella Jo Dean, agreeing that a city com- mittee may be unnecessary, but adding that she would support it in her effort to support all en- vironmental initiatives. Ald. Barbara Perrault added 7 APRIL 22 to 27 has been declared Emergency Preparedness Week to increase public awareness of community emergency plans and programs. The following is the se- cond in a series of News articles focusing on local emergency readiness. IMAGINE YOUR world shaking hard for two or three very long minutes. By Michael Becker News Reporter The once solid ground below your feet rolls by in visible waves. Soft or wet soils turn to liquid. Heavy objects, once stationary, are tossed about by an unseen hand, like so many toys in the playroom of a fitful child. All buildings are severely damaged or demolished. The walls come tumbling down. Experts have long been saying that we are overdue for The Big One, We all live with the notion that some fime, possibly in) our own lifetime, southwest B.C. will en t NORTH VANCOUVER CITY COUNCIL that although the district report is a good starting point, an oppor- tunity for input from city residents is important. She said it will give tocal view- points and will raise awareness within the community, and en- courage city residents to think about environmental issues. “Not supporting this motion would show a lack of leadership,” said Ald. Bill Bell. **A lot of en- vironmental issues have come from the ground up.”” Bell added that city council should initiate ways to encourage community discussions. In his April 2 report, city ad- ministrator Gerry Brewer recom- mended that between three and six meetings during the remainder of this year would allow enough time for the committee’s discussions. The $5,000 budget, Brewer said, should cover city staff time need- ed to assis: the committee, in- cluding over $3,000 for a commit- tee clerk/secretary. The committee will consist of representatives from five com- munity associations, the North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce and the city’s industrial communi- ty as well as one city alderman and two city citizens. Council will be accepting nominations for appointments to the committee, including re- questing nominees from the boundary and courthouse areas, the Cloverley and Ridgeway ratepayers’ associations and from the Lonsdale Citizens’ Associa- tion. Suggesting that nominees must be actively recruited by council, Ald. John Braithwaite moved that the city advertise for potential committee members. The motion was passed 6-1, with Clark opposed. e big one hits be hit by a major earthquake. The last major earthquake occurred in our urea in the 1870s and had an estimated intensity equal to 7.3 on the Richter scale. Geologists working with the Geological Survey office in California have said that seismic evidence shows a magnitude-9.5 earthquake is possible in the Pacitic Northwest. Mountains sitting on the Olym- pic Peninsula in Washington Strate are being squeezed together. On Vancouver Island an increase in the uplift rate of central areas of the island from an average of one millimetre a year from 1946 to 1977 to five millimetres a year since 1977 is seen by federal quake watchers as evidence of ‘a stage of more rapid strain accumulation prior to a seismic event.” The major quake everyone is expecting would come as a result of the Juan de Fuea Plate, which sits just off the coast of Van couver Island, snapping under pressures built as it) meets the North American Plate. Seismologists had thought the Juan De Fuca Plate, a fragment Sunday, April .4, 1991 ~ North Shore News - 3 NEWS photo Neil Lucente NEWS CARRIERS Ciaran Mulhall, Connor McCormack and Brian Tobin (left to right), join forces to blow cut a giant bubble at Science World in Vancouver. The North Shore News treated the carriers and their families to a night out recently. Watershed logging halt opposed Jobs will be lost if logging stopped in watershed - loggers A REPRESENTATIVE of IWA-Canada, Local 1-217 urg- ed North Vancouver District Council Monday night to re- consider its decision to oppose logging in the North Shore watersheds. Gordon McRae, first vice-presi- dent of Local 1-217, said halting logging in the Greater Vancouver watershed areas on the North Shore and in Coquitlam would throw 30 watershed loggers out of work. He added that mills needing logs, such as North Vancouver's Tolky Industries, Inlet Cedar Division, which is the North Shore’s last working sawmill, would be severely affected if wa- tershed logging were to be bann- ed. McRae read a_ submission prepared by !WA-Canada Local 1-217 president, Gary Kobayashi, which stated that last November’s turbid drinking water was caused of ocean floor, was slowly sliding under the continental North American Plate. 11 is now thought the plates are locked. Efforts are under way this year by the three North Shore municipalities and the North and West Vancouver Emergency Pro- gram (to identify and map geographical areas more likely to fail during intense earthquake movement on the North Shore. Earthquake emergency preparedness efforts on the North Shore are predicated on a quake hiuing with a magnitude of about seven. If a 9.5-magnitude quake were to strike, the result would be disastrous, Said emergency program coor- dinator Ross Peterson, ‘*We can’t afford to plan for or build build- ings 10 prepare for an event that catastrophic. We are preparing for an earthquake in excess of seven that would last for less than sev- eral minutes.” . Peterson said no buildings built to national buliding code stand- ards would survive a high- magnitude, long-duration earth- quake. By Anna Marie D’Angelo Contributing Writer by low watershed fevels followed by a record month of rainfall. The result, according to the submission, was a ‘‘churning ef- fect’’ as water rushed into man- made reservoirs and caused tur- bidity. ‘Ie is misleading to point to logging as causing the turbidity,” said McRae. But North Vancouver District Aldermen Janice Harris, Paul Turner and Ernie Crist took issue with the submission. ‘How can you say turbidity doesn’t occur with logging roads JUAN DE FUCA RIOGE —~ NORTH VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL and clear cuts?’’ said Harris. Turner said, ‘‘It (the submis- sion) says, ‘history has shown us the hands-off approach to water- shed management is a disaster.’ What history is that? We've had (no logging in) watersheds for years and they’ve served us well.’’ Ald. Ernie Crist said everyone was in favor of jobs, but the Greater Vancouver Water District’s proposed system to filter water from the North Shore reservoirs would cost taxpayers $500 million. “That's a staggering sum. The fact is, nature left alone provides the filtering system with trees that are perfect or imperfect,’’ said Crist. But Ald. Rick Buchols said McRae ‘‘hit the nail on the head’’ when he noted that people were jumping on the environmental bandwagon. “I’ve lived here for 36 years,’’ Buchols said. ‘‘Turbidity is not PLATE TECTONICS and the southwestern portion of 8.C. Local areas where soil is soft and saturated with water would liquify. “Typically these are marine de- posits or river delta soils. We know we have some parts of the North Shore where we have con- cerns about the strength of the soil — pockets along the water- front,’” Peterson said. Generally structures built on bedrack are better able toa with - stand shockwaves. Peterson said most loval soils are “fairly strong with respect (o earthquake move- ment.’ But planners anticipate the many bridges spanning local streams and rivers will be knocked out when a quake comes. Said Peterson, “‘The problem that we face here is that we could conceivably be cut into a series of islands. tt would make = our response job extremely difficult if we were to lose a number of those links. Is one more reason for people to be personally prepared. "*