FORMING A PERF ECT CIRCLE with 100 feet of Zooom Boom oil spill c containment boom, a helicopter hovers triumphantly over 2 Burrard Clean boom boat. The May 30 simuiated oil spill was organized by Burrard Clean, B. .'s oi) spill clean up cooperative, and was part of Burrard Clean's program of regular spill containment and (raining exercises. MOST EFFICIENT Clean-up group formed in wake of oil spills Oil spilis haunt Martyn Green. By TIMOTHY RENSHAW As the General Manager of Burrard Clean Oil Spill Cooperative (BCOSC), Green heads up what is con- sidered by many to be the best run and most financially efficient of the 14 emergency oil spill clean-up crews on the west coast of North America; it handles all B.C. oil spill emergencies and has attended some 300 spills since its for- mation in 1976. BCOSC was spawned in the wake of the countless oil spill disasters in the mid-70s. Six oil industry companics based in Burrard Inlet, Esso Petroleum Canada, Gulf Canada Products Co., Chevron Canada Ltd., Shell Canada Products Co., Tex- ‘co Canada Inc., and Trans M.untain§ Pipe Line Co. Lal, ivatized that the 49 square miles of deep draft in- ner harbor and 100 miles a! shoreline that make up the Port of Vancouver were desperately in need of at cf fi- cient oi! spill clean on Operation. “They tealized that in- dividually their efforts would be totally inadequate,’’ says Green, ‘so they agreed to pool financial and technological resources.”* The non-profit cooperative is basically the coordinating entity of Green bolstered by representatives of its foun- ding oif companies and a crew of contracted workers. With an annual operating budget of approximately $300,000, Burrard Clean is on 24-hour aiert, charged with the responsibility of cor- ralling oil and fuel spills large and small in) Vancouver's harbor and beyond. The key to the BCOSC's success, says Green, “is cons- tant training and constant use of all the lastest equipment available to the cooperative. IH-trained manpower bumbIl- ing around with dust-covered equipment does us no good whatsoever.”’ Capital costs for BCOSC equipment are in excess of $4 million. The figure includes two $1 million self-propelled oil skimmers. The skimmers recover oil at a rate of 200 gallons per minute and havea See Compact Page 15 NEWS photos Terry Peters LIKE A GROTESQUE AQUATIC sea worm, a 1500 foot length of Vikoma oil containment boom is winched ashore at the fisheries research Station in West Vancouver, May 30, after being used in a Burrard Clean oil spill exercise, The boom, weiphing approximately 20 tons, is used by the Canadian Coast Guard to corral oi and fuel spills. 3 - Sunday, June 9, 1985 - North Shore News News Briefs Music can’t sooth A VISITING bear ina ‘Lynn Valley. man’s backyard found the music. of Willie Nelson unbearable. The Lynn Valley man called ‘North Vancouver RCMP around 10:45 p.m. Thursday to say there was a bear in his yard. Police attended the house and found the re- AN. APARTMENT man. .: ager and a neighbor. pull- eda" “North: Vancouver. woman from her burning apartment May 20. wo North Vancouver: City: firefighters were called:to . 280 E. 2nd at-11:30-p.m. Fire officials ‘say Kathleen .. Whiting: apparently.: was. “asleep when fire! out in her bedroom A” MAN: accused - of. murder. was identified by: a, witness: as the gunman. in a 1982 bank robbery." ve Evan Clifford: Evans; on trial for murder in the shooting’ death of :a- Brink’s Canada -Ltd. - messenger, was: pointed out by Bank of Montreal head teller Nancy Wed- man. Wedman, told the jury at the B.C. Supreme Court trial she recogn.zed - Evans as the.armed rob-: ber in a June, 1982 rob-. bery at the bank’s. Ar- beast mains of a. beehive, but no bear. °°: The resident. “explained : to police he had put a Willie Nelson tape on, directing the music into the backyard to scare the bear off. And it worked. The bear was either frightened or put off by the music, ©: much to the credit — or discredit — of Nelson. was’ hae smoke: ag ere : : tothe. rest of the’ apart-... ment: and to. the. third] “floor hallway, say fire of- :ficials.: Two suites on. the - “floor: below were dam- aged ‘from a, leaking hot water pipe. Smokers’ “materials were. cited “as probable cause of the fire. = Wedman ‘said: although the’ robber was wearing: ‘a mening “Robert ‘Pers: sowich, June 29,° 19842 Persowich was shot in‘the: ® back . three times® shortly: $11,717 deposit’ from: the ‘liquor store: at ‘Park’ Royal South. Ron Andrews parking vote REZONING to _ provide for public parking at Ron Andrews poo! was ap- proved by North Van- souver District Council at ‘a public hearing May 27. Council later gave se- cond and third reading. to the bylaw. : The bylaw changes the zoning from single family residential to public assembly to provide for more public parking. Ready sets talks B.C. RAIL and its unions are set to talk with In- dustrial Inquiry Commis- sioner Vince Ready. scheduled Ready has and talks for Monday Tuesday, the first talks since he was named to the position. The provincial government passed Bill 39 which commits the two sides to binding arbitra- tion.