EDITOR,
The Auditor General's recent report slamming B.C.'s Environmental Assessment Office for their inability to safeguard the public is noteworthy for us "glow in the dark" Howe Sounders. They are in charge of a few sites around here. Here are a couple I wonder about: Nexen lands - they dumped this land on us so the Liberals could wash their hands of any future cleanup cost; Woodfibre - also a site that the Province oversees, but noone knows anything about what goes on over there, it's like an armed encampment with nasty signs and video cameras everywhere; Britannia Mines - here the company at least left some money behind to help with the water treatment (unlike Nexen), the Province is still sitting on its hands when it comes to the derelict vessels, however; Ashlu mine - most probably haven't even heard of this one, and the M.O.E. would like it to remain that way; BC RAIL shops - moving lots of contaminated material around on this site for years, and yet no public open house to give people an opportunity to ask what is being done in there (or not done); our first dump - located in fisherman's entrance, it's a 1950s site, God knows what's in there; our second dump - located behind downtown Squamish, God doesn't want to know what is in there; our third dump - located in the Northern Brackendale area, God packed up and went home; our Ocean dump - located off Watts point, this active ocean dump site that is in our back yard is used for ocean dumping on a regular basis.
John Buchanan
Squamish
