November 15th Re-elect Manno Theos Authorized by Manno Theos, Financial Agent – 250-792-5884
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www.comoxvalleyecho.com Friday, October 31, 2014
Price: 57 cents plus GST
Volume 20, No. 87
Boil water advisory still in effect ❑ High turbidity levels in Comox Lake monitored daily ❑ Don’t worry, though, if you drink water without boiling By Michael Briones Echo Staff
A crew from the Ulsan Broadcasting Corporation interviews Scott Wallace, a scientist with the David Suzuki Foundation, about the Chum salmon run. (Photos by Drew A. Penner/Echo Staff)
Korean broadcast crew visits the Puntledge to film Chum salmon run By Drew A. Penner Echo Staff The Taehwa River in Northeast Asia’s industrial hub, Ulsan, South Korea, became known as “the river of death” thanks to the toxic materials resulting from the city growing to produce 18 per cent of the country’s exports. As the city works to reclaim its ecology, a film crew from the Ulsan Broadcasting Corporation descended on Morrison Creek in the Comox Valley to give their viewers back home a glimpse of healthy chum spawning runs in the Puntledge River system. “The situation in Canada is quite different, so we cannot apply everything directly to Korea,” director Tae Hoon Kim said through a translator Oct. 24, as chum splashed their way up the creek beside him. “We try to learn some lessons and apply it to the Korean system as much as possible. That’s the purpose of this film.” (Continued on page 2)
Female chum salmon dig holes for their eggs as males attempt to intimidate each other.
The Comox Valley Regional District is constantly monitoring the turbidity levels in our source of drinking water. A boil water advisory was issued by the CVRD on Monday until further notice because of high turbidity levels in Comox Lake. Manager of water services Mike Herschmiller said this was the result of the heavy rainfall experienced over the last few days. “The lake filled up three-and-a-half metres in a week,” said Herschmiller. “The river beds into the reservoir have been very low and dry the whole summer and then this huge rain event that we had, the persistent rain, flushed in all the silt and the debris that had been sitting on the river edges and caused the lake to fill up with high turbid water. The lake now has to basically flush itself in order to produce clean water into the river.” Comox Lake supplies the drinking water in the Comox Valley. It is taken from the Puntledge River and delivered to about 41,000 residents. “Our drinking water standards are supposed to be less than one nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) at the source,” Herschmiller explained. “Once it gets over one, I start sending reports to Island Health. Because this is a prolonged event, it was decided we needed to issue this advisory.” Health Canada defines turbidity as a measure of the relative clarity or cloudiness of water. It is not a direct measure of suspended particles, but rather a general measure of the scattering and absorbing effect that suspended particles have on light. The most important health-related function of turbidity is its use as an indicator of the effectiveness of drinking water treatment processes, particularly filtration, in the removal of potential microbial pathogens. “There are waterborne viruses like cryptosporidium that are hard-shelled and a little bit resistant to chlorine. For lack of a better word, when there’s dirt in the water, when there’s turbid water, it’s easier for those organisms to almost hide in the dirt so that they become more resistant to chlorine. UV treatment which is what we’re looking at doing is effective against those creatures but again, when you have a higher turbidity, your UV and chlorine become less effective.” The boil advisory remains in effect until the water turbidity subsides at Comox Lake. (Continued on page 2)
Fire rips through automotive shop resulting in extensive damage By Michael Briones Echo Staff A quick response by the Courtenay Fire Department averted a fiery situation from getting out of hand on Tuesday afternoon. Flames ripped through Excel Automotive in “Tin Town” on Cousins Ave. in Courtenay around 4 p.m on Tuesday. Firefighters were called and were immediately at the scene. Upon arrival encountered a raging fire that was spewing out from two garage doors on one side of the building. Fire crews immediately went into action and were able to hose down the flames to contain the situation and prevent it from spreading to a nearby building. “Before the trucks got set up, we had a couple of, sounds like, acetylene tank cylinders go off and a couple of oxygen tanks with it,” said Fire Chief Don Bardonnex. Courtenay had its full crew out and were assisted by the Comox Valley RCMP. BC ambulance crews as well as those from BC Hydro were
also at the scene. No one was hurt. The owner of the automotive repair shop Robert McCauley said all the people inside the building were able to leave safely when the fire broke out. They were fixing a vehicle at that time. “We were just changing the fuel pump and a little bit of gas hit the floor and the trouble light dropped and ignited it,” said McCauley. Although Courtenay firefighters were able to control the fire, it took more than an hour to completely douse the flames and address any lingering dangers. The windy conditions made their task difficult. Bardonnex said they had to compensate for it because the building contained vehicles, oxy-acetylene tanks, flammable liquids and propane tanks. Firefighters had to break down doors as well as saw a hole in one of the garage doors to access the flames. The automotive shop suffered extensive damage and will have to be torn down, according to Bardonnex. An official investigation to the cause of the fire is underway.
Flames are shooting out the windows of Excel Automotive on Tuesday
FINAL DAY!
(Photo courtesy of Rodd Carroll)