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The Prince George
Citizen
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1989
50 CENTS
Low tonight: 3 High Sunday: 11
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City, B.C.....3,11
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Editorial 4 ______
Entertainment 10 .
Family.......23.24 JOVS tOKO One a
Horoscope.......19
Religion... Mystico! vibrations 22
TELEPHONE: 562-2441
City can't breathe easy about pollution
(One of a series about our environment.)
★ ★ ★
by MALCOLM CURTIS Staff reporter
Where does Prince George fit into the global story of a fragile planet under attack?
The city has long fought an image as a smelly, industrial place where people trade fresh air for hefty pay packets.
The acrid stink of pulp mill pollutants hasn’t gone away, although residents are no longer complacent.
In other respects, though, the city has an environmental record that should be the envy of places like Vancouver and Victoria.
Unlike those cities, it doesn’t pour sewage into open bodies of water, for example.
Discharges from Prince George’s $14-million sewage treatment plant don’t pollute the Fraser River,
according to the environment ministry.
And while some communities are choking on their own refuse, Prince George’s garbage dump has a life expectancy of at least 75 years.
Within 10 years, 60 per cent of B.C.’s municipal landfills will be out of space unless action is taken
to cut the amount of waste going to the dumps, the provincial government says.
“We’re in very good shape in this city,” says Ron Driedger, the environment ministry’s regional waste management manager.
“We can accept additional population into this city without needing an additional waste water treatment plant and another refuse site.”
The city’s air quality remains the ministry’s biggest concern.
And the wood hewers are to blame, the department says.
“It’s the forest industry that gives us the greatest pollution problem here,” says Driedger.
The mills, under pressure from the environment ministry and the public, say they are spending millions of dollars to fix the problem.
The ministry receives calls from residents complaining of health problems ranging from nausea to
breathing problems every time the air pollutant index climbs at monitoring stations.
“That is something we are requiring companies to solve,” says Driedger.
“I know they’re doing the work but whether it’ll be sufficient to meet our own objectives only time will tell.”
He acknowledges there’s a need for more education about ways to help preserve a healthy environment.
At this time of year, for instance, many residents burn leaves, spilling carcinogens into the air.
“People should really look at composting instead,” Driedger says.
“We are going to be encouraging people to take their leaves, lawn cuttings, carrot tops and potato
peelings and put them into compost piles.”
Prince George’s geography doesn’t help matters. Temperature inversions trap smoke and soot caused by anything that’s freely burned in the Bowl - from leaves, to firewood and wood waste fired in beehive burners.
If we add up the environmental pluses and minuses though, the picture in the city is mixed.
On the positive side, we have more parks (1,000 acres plus) and green space than most cities of comparable size.
The Nechako River, one of two rivers that flows through the community, is largely unpolluted.
The city’s water supply, from underground aquifers, is untainted.
And environmental awareness.
See ENVIRONMENT, page 2
SOUTHAM ENVIRONMENT PROJECT, PAGE 5
Inside today!
Our Fragile Future, a special 24-page supplement about the environment, is included in today’s issue of The Citizen.
The package of graphs, photos and stories culminates a six-month effort by a team of Southam News reporters and editors.
It informs readers about our radically changing environment and warns that little time is left to save a fragile planet and a fragile species — man.
Study material for classrooms is available by calling 562-3301 after Monday.
Socreds 'clear air' at special meeting
Theft devastates
VICTORIA (CP) - The day started with some Social Credit members literally lost in a fog.
By late Friday afternoon, Premier Bill Vander Zalm declared that a special caucus meeting had cleared the air.
The premier had called caucus together three weeks early in an attempt to calm Socreds stunned by both the resignation of four backbenchers and a fifth straight byelection loss.
“Let me say we had a very positive caucus meeting,” he said after the 2!/2-hour session that was delayed for four hours by pea-soup fog that delayed flights into Victoria.
“I listened to what it was (that) different caucus members had to say about some of the political difficulties that we have faced and may continue to face.
“I think it was very beneficial for me ... I intend to continue on leading the party and continuing to provide good free-enterprise government for the province and the caucus is united in that effort.”
“I expect the election will be some ways off hopefully but I certainly intend to be around a
Five die
Five people are dead and five more injured following a three-vehicle accident on Highway 16 West Friday at about 7:30 p.m.
RCMP say the accident occurred when a Buick sedan stopped in the westbound lane, signalling to turn left onto the Upper Mud River Road, and a Dodge Coronet sedan travelling in the same lane attempted to pass on the left.
The Dodge hit the stationary vehicle and careened into the east-bound lane, colliding with a pickup
No paper Monday
The Citizen will not publish Monday in observance of Thanksgiving. Publication will resume Tuesday.
while,” said the premier.
Asked if that included the next election, Vander Zalm said, “Yes.”
Looking upbeat despite a politically damaging week, the premier was flanked by more than a dozen caucus members as he talked to reporters.
Former deputy premier Grace McCarthy, a 23-year veteran of the legislature who resigned from cabinet last year over differences with Vander Zalm, did not join the phalanx. But she still sounded an optimistic note.
“I’m not divulging anything that goes on in caucus but I think that everybody is coming away feeling a little more positive that when they went in and I certainly feel that,” said McCarthy.
“I think that everybody has felt that they can support the premier,” she said. “I think he’ll be leading the party through the next election.”
Norman Ruff, a political scientist at the University of Victoria, was surprised that Vander Zalm didn’t resign.
“It struck me the rational thing was to resign, but Mr. Vander Zalm doesn’t always do the ration-
in crash
truck travelling in the eastbound lane.
Those who died in the Dodge sedan are all from Vanderhoof. They include Victoria Cecile Lindsay, 26, Kenny Raymond Elias, 23, Christina Maureen Dunn, 7, Wesley Arthur Mitchell, 5 and one-year-old Julia Dawn Engstrom.
Christina and Julia are the daughters of Lindsay. Their father, Donald Edwin Engstrom, 29, and Hans Russell Hansen, 25, father of Wesley both received minor injuries. Both have been released from Prince George Regional Hospital.
Wayne Derkach, 22, driver of the pickup truck from Fraser Lake and Frank E. Lang, 54, and wife Lucille from Prince George, the two persons in the stationary Buick, were also treated for minor injuries and released.
Prince George RCMP are still investigating the accident.
al thing,” said Ruff. “It struck me he seemed to have his heart into staying.”
The caucus had not been scheduled to meet until Oct. 25, the day before the Social Credit annual convention in Vancouver.
But Vander Zalm requested the meeting be moved up after the four backbenchers quit caucus Tuesday, saying they feared for the party’s electoral future. They plan to sit as Independent Socreds.
Even Vander Zalm loyalist Bud Smith predicted if an election was held tomorrow, the party that has ruled British Columbia for all but three of the last 37 years would lose.
The resignations came less than two weeks after the three-year-old government lost its fifth straight byelection. That defeat left the legislative standings at 43 Social Credit, 25 NDP and one Independent.
Vander Zalm received some good news earlier Friday when Statistics Canada figures showed the B.C. unemployment rate of 8.3 per cent in September was the lowest in eight years.
SKYLINK
PERMANENTLY
GROUNDED
OTTAWA (CP) - Skylink Airlines’ operating certificate has been cancelled effective immediately, Transport Minister Benoit Bouchard announced Friday.
The cancellation follows the suspension of the certificate last week, which took place after a Skylink Metroliner crashed Sept. 26 near Terrace, B.C., killing all seven people aboard.
A release from Bouchard's office said an audit of the airline has found problems with aircraft maintenance, unqualified pilots carrying passengers and falsification of safety documents required under the Aeronautics Act.
Rene Mercier, a spokesman for Bouchard, was unable to provide specifics on any of these irregularities.
He said in an interview Friday night the cancellation comes even though the minister does not yet have the final report of the audit.
“It doesn’t prevent the minister from knowing the facts.” he said. “You don't do that unless you've got sufficient facts.”
Jim Fulton, a New Democrat MP from B.C., after the crash accused the airline of numerous irregulariries. Skylink president Rafael Zur denied all Fulton’s allegations.
Mercier said cancellation of the operating certificate means the airline would have to start at Square 1 to get the licence back again. It would be much easier, he said, to get an operating certificate back from a mere suspension than from a cancellation.
by BERNICE TRICK Staff reporter
A Prince George couple trying to save money to buy a wheelchair for their disabled child is “devastated” after losing more than $9,000 worth of goods to overnight thieves.
Kevin and Barb Warkentine’s four-wheel drive truck loaded with a borrowed all-terrain vehicle was taken right from their driveway this week at their home north of Prince George near Northland Sports on Jade Drive.
“I went to bed about midnight Wednesday and got up at 5 a.m. to help my brother remove a moose from the bush with the borrowed cycle. But when I went to leave everything was gone from my driveway” said Kevin, noting the truck was locked with no keys in it.
“This has really turned our life upside down. We’ve been trying to figure out how to purchase a $2,700 wneelchair and a van to transport it next year for our son. It almost seems out of the question right now, said Kevin, who has had a “poor summer” for employment in the logging industry.
Three-year-old Brett is a disabled child with hydrocephalus (water on the brain) who attends the Child Develoment Centre on regular basis.
Next year, Brett, whose motor skills and speech are affected, will require the extra equipment to be able to continue his progress.
“These plans are important to us. When you have a disabled child, you need to give him every chance you can.”
The couple just doesn’t know which way to turn now with no theft and fire insurance on either vehicle and the owner of the cycle expecting to be paid $4,500 for replacement.
“There was confusion at the time I insured the truck and I failed to put the extra insurance on for $30. I’m regretting that decision now,” Kevin said.
He can’t believe how bold the thieves were.
“I had even backed the truck up to the fence to add a little more protection to the cycle in the back. I think they must have hot-wired it and pushed it down the (slightly inclined) driveway out of hearing
family
range before starting it,” Kevin said.
He wants the offenders who stole his property to bring it back and to realize the great stress and hardship they have placed on his family-
“We’re going backwards instead of forwards,” said a disillusioned Barb.
The couple is asking anyone who may have noticed anything suspicious early Thursday or has any clues to the whereabouts of the 1973 Ford orangy-yellow truck with a winch bumper or the 1989 red Polaris four-wheel ATV with studded tires to call the RCMP or 962-5082 or 962-6156.
All Kevin can hope for right now is that winter logging work will not be delayed.
“I’m just waiting for the winter work to start. I think this will be a good winter for us,” he said
In the meantime, the family depends on his unemployment insurance benefits and a part-time salary earned by Barb who also volunteers at the CDC.
VANDERHOOF RESIDENTS
HERMAN®
30100
'I'd say it's your gall bladder,
insist on a second opinion, I'll say kidneys."
Barb and Kevin Warkentine ponder what to do next after thieves disrupted plans for their three-year-old son, Brett. Citizen photo by Brock Gable
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058307001008