NEWS 3
NEWS 5
Big bucks for recreation projects
Opium conviction upheld
ARTS 11
Locals up for Ovations FOR THE BEST LOCAL
COVERAGE WEDNESDAY JANUARY 18, 2017
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
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THE LAST SKATE?:
It doesn’t happen often, but these young skaters were taking advantage of the chance to glide on a frozen Deer Lake over the weekend. The city posts warnings on its website advising people that it’s not safe to skate on city lakes – and, now that the weather is warming up, it seems unlikely anyone will have a chance to try again, at least for awhile. The forecast is now calling for rain and temperatures as high as 9C in the city this week, so we may have seen the last of the deep freeze. PHOTO CHUNG CHOW
URBAN ENVIRONMENT
Salt levels have streamkeeper worried Some creeks flowing off of Burnaby Mountain are experiencing higher-than-normal salt levels By Tereza Verenca
tverenca@burnabynow.com
While salt, sand and brine helped melt the ice off the roads, it hasn’t helped local waterways. Christine Ensing, an environmental services officer with the City of Burnaby, told the NOW some of the
creeks that flow off Burnaby Mountain are experiencing higher-than-normal salt levels that are above the allowable limit. Under B.C.’s water quality guidelines, levels can’t exceed more than 600 milligrams per litre. “We do have concerns with the amount of salt that’s being used, but I
mean, this has also been a very different winter,” she said, noting Burnaby Mountain’s roads are maintained by SFU, while Gaglardi Way and Burnaby Mountain Parkway are looked after by the city. “We’ve got a geography here where we have some steep roads and deep val-
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leys, so we have to keep the roads safe.” One tributary, located where SFU’s old salt shed used to be, on the south side of the mountain, recently had a reading of 2,700 mg/L, according to John Templeton, chair of the Stoney Creek environment committee.Templeton
has been taking a reading almost every day for the last two months. “It’s bad. Most of January, they (SFU) were always out of compliance,” he said. Templeton is worried the excessive salt in local creeks will have a negative impact on the salmon eggs that are nestled in the gravel.The
streamkeeper pointed to a local experiment conducted a few years ago that saw salmon eggs placed in three different waterways. “We watched how those eggs developed.The first thing the study noticed was that there was a higher Continued on page 9
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