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Panorama Beach declared

3 - Sunday, July 16, 1989 -

North Shore News

safe for public swimming AREA CLOSED FOR ALMOST ONE MONTH DUE TO POLLUTION

DEEP COVE’S chronically polluted Panorama Beach was reopened to public swirmming again Thursday after being closed for just under one month because of high fecal col-

iform counts.

Bill Kimmett, the North Shore’s chief public health inspector, said the health department advised North Vancouver District Thurs- day that signs warning of unsafe coliform levels could be removed after results of tests taken July 10 showed coliform readings had dropped to 175 units per 100 millilitres of water.

Greater Vancouver Regional District beaches are considered un-

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW : . News Reporter safe for swimming when coliform counts exceed 200.

Panorama was closed June 16 after fecal coliform cou:its hit 281 units per 100 millilitres of water. Since the closure that total has risen as high as 492 and yo-yoed above the 200 mark until this week.

Coliform counts are averaged over a 30-day logarithmic mean. The averaged readings from the three Deep Cove sampling stations over the past month have been af- fected significantly by an extremely high reading of 16,000 recorded June 9.

Last year the beach was closed to public swimming for 47 days in a row because of high coliform counts, It was also closed in 1985 and 1986 for the same reason.

Deep Cove area residents have become increasingly vocal over the chronic closure of the beach.

And following a June 9 demonstration by a contingent of

approximately 50 angry Deep Cove mothers and their children at North Vancouver District hall, members of the Deep Cove Com- munity Association, district coun- cil, the North Shore Health Department and Dayton & Knight consulting engineers met Wednes- day to discuss the continuing prob- Jem of Deep Cove harborz’s high coliform counts and address con- cerns from the association that a recent consulting report into the causes of the pollution was ‘‘superficial at best.”’

The meeting will be reconvened July 25 to discuss further the Van- couver Port Corp.’s plan to install

NEWS photo Terry Peters

PROTESTERS CARRIED signs and waved to passing motorists on the rerth end of the Lions Gate Bridge Thursday to protest the dismissal of columnist David Suzaki from the Globe and Mail. The protesters were jamenting the loss of Suzuki’s environmental viewpoint in the national publication.

N.

VAN FIRM TO ESTABLISH NEW FACILITIES

a larger federal government wharf in Deep Cove harbor and the im- plementation of such things as in- creased creek monitoring and more high-profile signs restricting dogs in park areas near Panorama Beach.

Tentative agreement reached with hospital union

A TENTATIVE three-year agreement was reached Thursday night between the 200-member International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) and the Health Labour Relations Association following a 15- hour bargaining session.

Under the terms of the agree- ment, union members would Teceive wage increases totalling just over 18 per cent: a 5.5 per cent wage increase and an additional 275 per cent job classification ad- justment: retroactive to April 1, 1989, followed April 1, 1990 and Aug. 1, 1990 with wage increases of 5.0 per cent and 1.35 per cent, respectively, and additional raises of 3.0 per cent April 1, 1991 and 2.5 per cent Nov. 1, 1991.

Lions Gate Hospital employs sever: IUOE members, who are responsible for running the facili- ty’s steam boilers and heating system.

The union, which last week voted 96 per cent to strike, had demanded wage increases of just over 40 per cent over two years.

IUOE members at LGH are cur- rently paid $15.56 per hour.

No date for a contract ratifica- tion vote had been set by the union to press time Friday.

$7.5 million secured for fuel cell production

A NORTH Vancouver company currently leading the world in the development of a non-polluting fuel cell has secured $7.5 million from a group of international investors that will provide the necessary seed money to begin commercial

fuel cell production.

_ Ballard Power Systems (BPS), an amalgamation of Ballard Technologies Coxp.’s research and production arms, will use the money to establish new production facilities for the Solid Polymer ‘Fuel Cell near their current 1165 West 15th St. offices.

“It’s a major event in the com- any’s history,” said BPS presi- dent Firoz Rasul. ‘‘The interna- tional scope of the investors assures Ballard a role in taking this technology to the world. As en- vironmental issues dominate the world scene, so must the solutions, and today, this fuel cell technology

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW News Repo. ter

now has a chance to become one of the major solutions to part of the environment crisis.”

Announcement of the _ invest- ment funding follows an agree- ment signed June 23 between BPS and the Department of National Defence that created a unique research and development partner- ship between the two.

As reported in the June 25 News story chronicling the event, the partnership means BPS and the federal government will work

together to develop fuel cell tech- nology, which will initially be used for military purposes, but has the potential to replace the internal combustion engine.

The fuel cell, which has been developed by BPS to extract hydrogen from liquid methanol, converts chemical energy from hydrogen directly to electric power without any intermediate thermal or mechanical process.

Its byproducts are electricity and water.

BPS vice-president of marketing David McLeod said Friday the company plans to produce over a megawatt of power from 100, 10- kilowatt fuel cell units by the end of 1990.

A kilowatt translates to 10, 100-watt light bulbs burning simul- taneously. The peak electrical de- mand for the average house is less

than 10 kilowatts.

McLeod said the fuel cells manufactured in the company’s new production facility will be us- ed in a variety of applications, from powering houses to buses.

The company, he said, is close to securing orders from customers in Japan, Europe, the United States and Canada.

McLeod estimated that total outside investment needed to have the fuel cell in full commercial production wili be about $20 mil- lion.

BPS plans to have developed substantial commercial manufac- turing capabilities for the cell by the mid-1990s.

Rasul said the current 50 member BPS staff will double with the infusion of investment capital and the establishment of produc- tion facilities.

BPS vice-president of marketing David McLeod ...close to securing foreign orders.

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