Letter to City Council

Powell River Mayor and Council

I'm a member of the Wildwood citizen's group, PRL (Powell River Legacy) that currently has an appeal before the EAB, Environmental Appeal Board, in opposition to the Catalyst industrial dump-site expansion. In the course of gathering and preparing information in this regard, it has come to my attention that there is a running spring that empties into Powell River, (the river) approximately  across from City Motors, on the west bank and below the power line cut. At the mouth of this spring, previously hidden from view by salal, is a test well for water quality monitoring, and adjacent to this, also previously hidden, is signage of unsafe drinking water.

This signage is endorsed by the area Medical Health Officer. I should mention here that this area is being used by local children as a swimming hole, as is evidenced by the swing on an overhanging tree, shown in the photo. I was holding this information, for PRL's appeal to the EAB, when it occurred to me that I may be remiss in my responsibility to community health and safety by not immediately bringing this to your attention. As a resident of Wildwood, I have long been concerned with the compromising of our water supply by leachate from the land fill above.

In my opinion, there should be zero tolerance of potentially poisonous substances entering our water supply. If the above signage was as a result of the original dump site ( closed and capped in 1995 ) the situation can only be exacerbated by the new landfill and the millions of tons being piled on top of the old waste. At first blush, the location of this spring and the possible leaching would indicate a flow into the ocean and not up into our water intake at 3 mile Bay. I live on Atlin Avenue, overlooking the Lake and the Shinglemill Pub, and depending on a number of factors, (wind and back-eddy, dam expulsion rate, etc.) I have observed driftwood flowing north up the lake, potentially carrying any other possible contaminants in the flow. This is of great concern.

It is well known that fish congregate at the intake of dams as a good source of food. If there are contaminants they will be carried by the fish onto the table of many of our citizens, who fish from the adjacent bridge, and the lake in general. There are many other implications involving birds and other wildlife. With fresh water being at a premium - world wide,  I believe we should be treating ours as a treasure to be protected, for us and our future generations. This river was a food source for the Sliammon First Nations, at the turn of the century, and there has been talk of a fish-ladder to re-introduce the ancient salmon runs that are at the heart of their culture and history. If there are contaminants entering the mouth of the river, it would be a disaster for these plans.

In closing, I would like to add that in these tough economic times, one has a tendency to take inventory. We are an isolated resource community, which has tremendous regional economic potential to rebuild our resource base for secondary sustainable jobs (value added) in Fisheries, Forestry, Agriculture, water, and air. It's not my preference to encourage those that have so irresponsibly drawn down our resources in the past, and I envision a much more local / regionally controlled economic development in partnership with Sliammon First Nations, learning from them and avoiding the practices of the past, as we rebuild our community for a sustainable future.

Trusting you will address this issue judiciously and expediently.

Sincerely

Hugh Cooper