Wednesday, January 30, 1991 - North Shore News —

NV spill skills tapped for Gulf

Firm’s oil skimmer requested for Mideast cleanup On the

NORTH VANCOUVER oil spill cleanup technology is be- subsequent spills. Aramco is at-
ing tapped to battle the massive Persian Gulf oil slick — a he to compile a i of what
. . spill-cleaning equipment) is im-

the largest oil spill ever recorded. mediately available,” he said.
Morris has experience cleaning
an oil spill in the China Sea,
where he says the temperature and
sea state are similar iv those

it is because there is no air trans-
port into Saudi Arabia.*’

MITL's MI-30 skimmer is
capable of pumping 100 gallons of
crude oil per minute.

But he said, ‘‘Our machines are
in such high demand that we

Morris International Trading
Ltd. (MITL), the manufacturer of
an oil skimmer widely considered

By Michael Becker
News Reporter

the world industry standard, has
been asked by Houston-based
Aramco to round up a flotilla of
skimmers for duty in the Middle
East.

Aramco, (Arabian American Oil
Co.) the largest oil company
operating in Saudi Arabia, is ac-
ting as a lead agency in tackling
the spill cleanup job. An
estimated 1.7 billion litres of oil,
believed to have originated from a
Kuwaiti oil facility, has fouled the
Persian Gulf.

Aramco asked skimmer inventor

Sewer
sump
Saves
creek
from
chemical

disaster

A PROTOTYPE
sewer sump, designed and
installed at Mackay Creek
by North Vancouver

storm

District engineers, saved
the salmon-bearing water-
way from receiving a toxic
wallop of pollutants spilled
in the aftermath of a Jan.
1! industrial fire on
Pemberton Avenue.

By Michael Becker
News Reporter

The fire that destroyed the
Salish Auto Haus auto shop,
located in the 1500-block of
Pemberton Avenue, damaged
more than a dozen cars. But ac-
cording to Ken Kerr, risk
management superintendent for
the North Vancouver District
engineering department, the fire
also resulted in the release of
approximately 50 gallons of
diesel oil, solvents and used
motor oil.

Carried by water from fire
hoses, the spilled material wash-
ed into the storm sewer system.

“In the past the storm sewer
would go directly to Mackay
Creek. Whenever we came down
here there was a plume of oil
and grey water coming out (of
the sewer pipe feeding into the
creek),”’ Kerr said.

The Dec. 12, 1990 issue of the
News contained a complete in-
ventory of the North Shore
creeks and the variety and quan-
tity of fish populations they
support.

According to that survey,
Mackay Creek supports coho,
pink and chum salmon, some
steelhead trout and a good pop-
wiation of cutthroat trout. It also
supports some crayfish.

In 1987, the engineering
department received approval
from municipal council to design
and install a sump at Mackay

Dave Morris to see if his custom-
ers in Canada — there are just
over 100 MITL skimmers already
deployed through various com-
panies — are willing to send them
to the Persian Gulf now and
teceive new skimmers from Morris.
**Of course nobody wants to let
go of them,” Morris said.
Meanwhile, Morris’s agent in
Geneva, Switzerland, is requesting
skimmers for the Red Sea area.
“I’m a bit puzzled by that
one,”’ Morris said, ‘‘but I expect

haven't any stock on hand.”

With increased staff, Morris can
manufacture five MI-30 skimmers
over the next two to three weeks.
He has additional staff standing
by.

As far as cleaning up the slick
already oozing through the Per-
sian Gulf, Morris doesn’t see an
immediate answer.

““What has already been spilled
can’t be picked up by skimmers. {
suspect it’s much like blacktop by
now. (But) it may be their policy
to get equipment in place for

%
nN WS photo Mike Wakefleld

KEN KERR, risk management superintendent for the North
Vancouver District engineering department, inspects a boom
at Mackay Creek used to sop up residual oil in the aftermath of
an industrial fire on Pemberton Avenue.

Park. A second sump, also pro-
tecting Mackay Creek, was in-
stalled nearby in 1989. Two
storm sewer lines emptying into
Mackay Creek serve dozens of
businesses.

The pollutant-snagging sumps
cost about $10,000 each and
work this way: the sewer fine
discharges into the large sump
chamber. Water runs over a
concrete baffler protruding from
the bottom of the chamber and
then strikes a second baffler
mounted from the top. The
storm sewer water leaves the
sump chamber and discharges
into the creek, leaving lighter-
than-water and heavier-than-
water materials trapped in the
sump.

Kerr said the installation of
the first sump at Mackay Creek
was an experiment.

“*We knew it would work,’” he
said. ‘‘But it was a question of
whether we could hold back
enough stuff to do anything with
it.”

A recent trip with Kerr to in-
spect the Mackay Park sumps
revealed a toxic stew of greasy,

oily water and garbage filling the
holding chambers of both
sumps. The two sumps at
Mackay Creek are emptied an-
nually by a licensed hazardous
chemical disposal company.

Without the Mackay Creek
sumps, the pollution from the
auto repair shop fire would have
passed dircetly into the creek
and on to Burrard Inlet.

Kerr would like to see similar
sumps installed in the Lynnmour
industrial area and another in-
stalled at the foot of Pemberton.

“t's a very simple principle.
[v's neat and clean and very low
maintenance. We're trying to set
the benchmark for the com-
munity by doing this sort of
thing. It’s like buying in-
surance,’’ Kerr said.

Said Paul Ross, a project of-
ficer with Environment Canada
who was called out to inspect the
spill site after the fire, ‘tlt was
wonderful. The thing that Ken’s
group has done is unique and
very effective. We'd certainly
like to see other municipalities
follow suit.’’

found in the Persian Gulf.

According to Morris, spilled oil
evaporates quickly in the warm
conditions. ‘‘It will eventually
disperse on the water — it’s a big,
big expanse of water,’’ he said.

Morris recommends that oil
reaching the shoreline should sim-
ply be bulldozed over.

Added Morris, ‘‘This spill is
unnecessary. Unfortunately there
is going to be a tot of marine life
killed with this. It hurts one to see
this.””

In the short term he foresees an
increase in oil spill equipment
manufacturers.

‘Every man and his dog will be
boom manufacturing — you bet
your life,’’ he said.

N. Van mom
condemns
condom plan

CONDOM MACHINES
shouldn’t be allowed in
public schools because ciga-
rette machines aren’t allow-
ed there either, a mother
told the North Vancouver
District 44 School Board at
its Jan. 22 meeting.

By Patrick Raynard
Contributing Writer

The mother, who did not iden-
tify herself, was responding to the
trustees’ discussion of a letter sent
to them last December by a West
Vancouver parent in which the
parent encouraged both North
Shore school boards to install
condom vending machines in sec-
ondary schools.

In her letter, Janie Robinson, a
nursing student whose two
children attend Gleneagles
Glementary School in West Van-
couver, claimed that ‘‘making
condom use socialiy acceptable
and developing a safer sex attitude
is necessary in the battle with
AIDS ... condoms must be made
readily available to students in
middle and senior secondary
schools.’*

The North Vancouver trustees
voted unanimously Jan. 22 to
refer the issue of condom
machines to the board’s Learning
for Living Advisory Committee,
which will report its findings to
the board by March 25.

As reported earher in the News,
the West Vancouver District 45

@ Budget Beaters
B Business

@ Classified Ads
® Doug Collins
@ Bob Hunter

BB Lifestyles

NORTH VANCOUVER
SCHOOL BOARD

School Board responded to
Robinson’s letter by voting to seek
the opinions of parent groups,
teachers and students before
deciding on a policy.

Meanwhile, North Vancouver
trustee Richard Walton encourag-
ed all interested members of the
public to express their feelings by
writing to the board or by arrang-
ing to make formal presentations
to the board or its Learning for
Living Advisory Committee.

The committee consists of rep-
resentatives from parent groups,
North Shore Family Services, the
North Shore Union Board of
Health, Alternatives, the Ministry
of Social Services and Housing,
the North Shore Medical Health
Association, school district staff,
Chesterfield House and the
religious community.

Walton assured the mother who
protested verbally at the Tuesday
meeting that there are no condom
machines in North Vancouver
schools at present and that the
trustees’ motion to refer the mat-
ter to the Learning for Living
Advisory Committee ‘‘in no way
presents a board decision.”’

People or groups wishing to
make a presentation to the school
board or its Learning for Living
Advisory Committee may phone
the board at 987-8141 or write to
721 Chesterfield Ave., North
Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2M5.

Weather

Wednesday, cloudy with sunny periods. High near 6°C.
Thursday, periods of rain. High 10°C.

Second Class Registration Number 3885