- TERRY LAKE IS NEW BC MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT
- TALK: CANADA'S TOP 40 RESEARCH PRIORITIES FOR CONSERVING BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY", 21 MARCH, 2:30PM, UVIC
- BOWKER CREEK SEDIMENT QUALITY DATA DRAFT
- US KILLER WHALE STUDY RELEASED - NO MENTION OF SEWAGE, WASTEWATER OR VICTORIA
- GARBAGE WREAKING HAVOC IN OCEANS (NO MENTION OF SEWAGE)- LETTER: SEWAGE PLANT WILL FOUL HARBOUR
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TERRY LAKE IS NEW BC MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT
Short biography from Lake's MLA website:
A veterinarian by profession, Terry served as the Mayor of the City of Kamloops from 2005-2008 and as a city councillor from 2002-2005, a time when Kamloops reached record employment and construction and was recognized for service to residents by the National Quality Institute.
Terry is a recipient of the BC Veterinary Medical Association Award of Merit for service to the profession and has served as Vice President of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association and Vice President of the Union of BC Municipalities. He was a member of the BC Transit Board of Directors for three years when transit service increased dramatically in Kamloops.
Community service has long been a part of Terry’s life whether serving as president of the Coquitlam Rotary Club in the 1990s or as president of the Kamloops Recreational Soccer League. One of his most rewarding experiences was traveling with Developing World Connections to Tangalle, Sri Lanka in 2008 to assist with tsunami relief.
- http://www.terrylakemla.bc.ca/
Lake's Minister of Environment website: http://www.gov.bc.ca/env/
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TALK: CANADA'S TOP 40 RESEARCH PRIORITIES FOR CONSERVING BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY", 21 MARCH, 2:30PM, UVIC
Dr. Murray Rudd, York University (UK) Bio, Research, Publications
Here is the Bowker Creek sediment data that we have collected and the locations. I have compared the data to the BC MOE’s Interim Freshwater Sediment Quality Guidelines. Metals that exceeded these guidelines were shaded if they were also above the soil background level. The data has also been compared to marine sediment quality guidelines as the program was initially focused on marine impacts.
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CRD CALWMC MEETING 23 MARCH
Agenda for CALWMC 23 March meeting:
5. Harbours Environmental Action Program – Review of Service
6. Program Management Consulting Services Budget Status – Core Area Wastewater
Treatment Program
7. Community Benefits Framework – Core Area Wastewater Treatment Program
8. Correspondence
a) 14 March 2011 Letter from Esquimalt Re: Public Forum on Community Benefits
b) 11 Feb 2011 Response to Esquimalt letter from Chair Blackwell
c) 20 December 2010 Letter from Esquimalt Re: Public Forum on Community Benefits
Reports for 23 March meeting:
Item 8(c) Correspondence from Township of Esquimalt to Geoff Young and Judy Brownoff 20 December 2010
Item 8(b) Correspondence from Denise Blackwell to Towhship of Esquimalt 11 February 2011
Item 8(a) Correspondence from Township of Esquimalt to Geoff Young and Denise Blackwell 14 March 2011
Item 07 EWW 11-24 Community Benefits Framework - CAWTP
Item 06 EWW 11-25 Program Management Consulting Services Budget Status - CAWTP
Item 05 EEP 11-23 Harbours Environmental Action Program - Review of Service
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ARESST: Excerpt from news story below:
Lake told KTW one of the reasons he wanted to run for the B.C. Liberals was because of its stand on the environment. He said he has always enjoyed researching and looking at issues from a scientific perspective and said his ministry will make decisions based on “good information.
Short biography from Lake's MLA website:
A veterinarian by profession, Terry served as the Mayor of the City of Kamloops from 2005-2008 and as a city councillor from 2002-2005, a time when Kamloops reached record employment and construction and was recognized for service to residents by the National Quality Institute.
Terry is a recipient of the BC Veterinary Medical Association Award of Merit for service to the profession and has served as Vice President of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association and Vice President of the Union of BC Municipalities. He was a member of the BC Transit Board of Directors for three years when transit service increased dramatically in Kamloops.
Community service has long been a part of Terry’s life whether serving as president of the Coquitlam Rotary Club in the 1990s or as president of the Kamloops Recreational Soccer League. One of his most rewarding experiences was traveling with Developing World Connections to Tangalle, Sri Lanka in 2008 to assist with tsunami relief.
- http://www.terrylakemla.bc.ca/
Lake's Minister of Environment website: http://www.gov.bc.ca/env/
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Lake enters Clark cabinet; Krueger exits
Jeremy Deutsch
Kamloops This Week
March 15, 2011
It’s a changing of the guard for politics in Kamloops.
After four years and five ministries, Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Kevin Krueger is out of the B.C. Liberal cabinet, while across the river, rookie Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Terry Lake gets a raise and a promotion to minister of environment and deputy government house leader.
It’s all part of Premier Christy Clark’s new-look cabinet that has shrunk to 18 from 23.
Lake told KTW one of the reasons he wanted to run for the B.C. Liberals was because of its stand on the environment.
He said he has always enjoyed researching and looking at issues from a scientific perspective and said his ministry will make decisions based on “good information.
“It’s a daunting challenge in front of me, but I’m excited about the opportunity,” he said following the appointment on Monday, March 14.
Though Lake, who has been battling a recall campaign for five weeks, still needs to be briefed on specific matters within the ministry, he said everything from mining development to air quality are all significant issues for B.C. residents.
Lake is considered a rising star in the party in less than two years on the job.
He was chairman of the committee that decided to send the harmonized sales tax to a referendum.
He is also now chairman of a task force looking into the cull of 100 sled dogs in Whistler.
With Lake getting the cabinet post and the premier signaling a smaller government, it seemed unlikely Kamloops would get two ministers.
Krueger said he was prepared to go to the backbench and was the first to congratulate his colleague on the promotion.
“My heart was prepared for this,” he said, adding Lake brings a “lot of stuff” to the cabinet table.
Krueger said he intends to remain very involved and run again in the next provincial election.
The longtime MLA who held five cabinet posts — the last being the ministry of social development — wasn’t completely left out as he was appointed to the cabinet committee on open government and engagement.
Both politicians appear to be lining up behind their new leader, suggesting the party is united and energized following the cabinet choices.
“I don’t see how anyone could possibly be offended by the choices she [Clark] made,” Krueger said.
Meanwhile, opposition parties are quick to dismiss the new cabinet.
A statement from the Kamloops-North Thompson NDP constituency called Lake’s appointment over Krueger “new paint on an old truck,” while local B.C. Conservatives argued there was no major change to the key caucus members that stood with former premier Gordon Campbell.
Kamloops-North Thompson recall campaign organizer Chad Moats noted an increase in the amount of calls from people interested in signing the recall petition following Lake’s appointment as environment minster.
PAY RAISE
Terry Lake’s promotion to cabinet brings with it a hefty salary increase. As an MLA, Lake
is paid $101,859. As a cabinet minister, he will be paid an additional $50,930.
TALK: CANADA'S TOP 40 RESEARCH PRIORITIES FOR CONSERVING BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY", 21 MARCH, 2:30PM, UVIC
Dr. Murray Rudd, York University (UK) Bio, Research, Publications
Rudd will be addressing difficulty of conservation scientists to have policy making reflect their research.
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BOWKER CREEK SEDIMENT QUALITY DATA DRAFT
Attached are Bowker Creek Sediment Quality data information, 1994-2009, from the CRD biologist Barri Rudolph. Barri says:
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US KILLER WHALE STUDY - NO MENTION OF SEWAGE, WASTEWATER OR VICTORIA
Southern Resident Killer Whales
(Orcinus orca)
5-Year Review:
Summary and Evaluation
Excerpts:
- Contaminant levels in killer whales, prey species or surrogate marine mammal populations in the greater Puget Sound area that indicate a reduction or slowing of accumulation of legacy contaminants, such as PCBs and DDT, and information on current baseline levels of emerging contaminants. This could include data showing that overall contaminant levels in the population are decreasing or accumulation is slowing, or information that younger animals have a proportionally reduced contaminant load. A decrease in the number of contaminated sites in Puget Sound would also indicate a reduction in contaminants in a portion of the habitat of Southern Resident killer whales. (page 10)
- Regulations are in place to limit the introduction of harmful contaminants, and there is evidence of decreasing levels of contaminants detected in Southern Residents, prey species, or surrogate marine mammal populations, or evidence that the current level of contaminants causes no harm to the whales. (page 15)
- We do not currently have sufficient baseline or trend information to evaluate if contaminant loads and accompanying physiological impacts are limiting recovery and sustainability of Southern Residents. (page 16)
Download 53 page document: http://www.nwr.noaa.
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LETTER: SEWAGE PLANT WILL FOUL HARBOUR
Letters
Goldstream Gazette
March 10, 2011
Re: Harbour authority wary of McLoughlin sewage plant, News, March 9, 2011.
The Greater Victoria Harbour Authority objects to a sewage plant at McLoughlin Point, but that GVHA letter omitted the environmental concern about this proposed sewage plant that had already been expressed by the Victoria/Esquimalt Harbour Society.
While a sewage plant at the point will be bad for tourism and the harbour economy, it could even be worse for the point’s near-shore marine environment.
However, no environmental impact assessment of the point’s near-shore marine habitat has been done, nor does it appear that any is planned because B.C.’s environmental assessment law doesn’t apply to sewage plants.
There is little doubt that this expensive, unnecessary sewage plant plunked at McLoughlin Point could create many more environmental, economic and social problems than it would ever solve.
John Newcomb
Saanich
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ARESST: Note that the CRD landfilled 4,781 tonnes of screenings in 2009 - most of which had been caught by the 6mm screens on our outfalls.
GARBAGE WREAKING HAVOC IN OCEANS (NO MENTION OF SEWAGE)
Study estimates there are 36,000 pieces of trash along the coast
Larry Pynn
Victoria Times Colonist
Postmedia News
March 19, 2011
Letters to editor: letters@timescolonist.
No matter where you travel on the B.C. coast, no matter how remote or seemingly untrammelled and pristine the fjord or inlet, a piece of plastic, Styrofoam or other garbage has been there before you.
God knows how it got there: dumped recklessly off a vessel, swept down a river or through a storm drain, blown by the wind off the land, or brought in by the ocean currents flowing across the vast North Pacific -including debris from the Japanese tsunami, which could start arriving on our coast in two years.
What we do know is that marine garbage is ubiquitous and wreaking havoc at every level of the marine environment.
A new B.C. study estimates there are 36,000 pieces of "synthetic marine debris" -garbage the size of fists to fridges -floating around the coastline, from remote inland fjords to 150 kilometres offshore.
Of that, 49 per cent is Styrofoam or similar polystyrene products, 15 per cent plastic bottles, 10.5 per cent plastic bags and 6.3 per cent fishing gear. The rest of the garbage, slightly less than 20 per cent of the total, includes plastic, cardboard, wrappers, buoys, aluminum cans and so on.
There are heavier concentrations of garbage in some places than in others -Victoria, Langara Island off northern Haida Gwaii, and the Cape Scott area of northern Vancouver Island, for example -perhaps due to ocean currents creating eddies that collect trash.
The study was conducted over three summers aboard the Raincoast Conservation Society's 21-metre sailboat. Sightings during surveys were combined with computer modelling to interpolate results for the entire coast.
The estimates do not include garbage on beaches or unseen debris in the water column or ocean bottom.
"It's the tip of the iceberg," said Rob Williams, a researcher with the University of B.C. marine mammal research unit and lead author of the study, soon to be published in Marine Pollution Bulletin.
"There is more trash entering the system all the time from land and marine sources, and some leaving the system when it hits the beach," he said.
"Our best solution is to prevent trash from entering the system. Beach cleanups are a great way to prevent the trash from re-entering the system at the next high tide, but we also need some debris-prevention programs."
Williams would like to see more studies, looking into issues such as the potential impact of garbage on marine life and into the sources of the garbage. He notes that Styrofoam is used widely in fish packing operations.
The study precedes the Sunday launch in Hawaii of a United Nations-sponsored international conference on marine debris -not just garbage such as plastics that now lace the innards of almost half the oceans' 300 species of seabirds, but abandoned fishing gear that can continue to kill marine life for decades.
Amy Fraenkel, North America director for the United Nations Environment Program, said from Washington, D.C., that in the decade since the last marine debris conference it is obvious that "the problem isn't going away. In fact, there are some signs it's getting worse."
The 2005 UNEP report Marine Litter: An Analytical Overview stated: "It is estimated that about 6.4 million tons of marine litter are disposed in the oceans and seas each year. According to other estimates and calculations, some eight million items of marine litter are dumped in oceans and seas every day."
While the ingestion of plastics and other marine debris is well documented in seabirds and turtles, more recent concerns relate to plastics breaking down in the marine ecosystem where they can be absorbed by the ocean's biota and move through the food web. Other plastics can absorb and collect toxic chemicals.
UNEP in 2008 estimated global plastic production at 225 million tonnes per year, Fraenkel said. The annual per capita consumption of plastics in North America and western Europe is expected to rise to 140 kg from 100 kg by 2015. The current per capita consumption of 20 kg in rapidly developing countries in Asia is predicted to rise to 36 kg by 2015.
Audubon Magazine recently documented the death of a young Laysan albatross in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, its stomach filled and perforated with 12 ounces of debris, mostly plastic but also bottle caps, cigarette lighters and other inedibles. The parents had scooped up the debris while foraging on the ocean surface and regurgitated it back into the chick's beak along with squid and other real food.
Grey whales also can be at extra risk because they feed by swallowing huge amounts of ocean bottom, then filtering out small organisms before expelling the water.
During that process, they can ingest all manner of garbage that has settled on the ocean floor.
An investigation into an 11-metre adult male grey whale that washed ashore near Seattle last April found the forward of three stomach chambers filled with an obscene amount of garbage -more than 20 plastic bags, small towels, surgical gloves, sweat pants, plastic pieces, duct tape and a golf ball. Evidence of feeding in industrial waters, it exceeded anything previously found.
Many groups are now advocating for rules to reduce plastic packaging in a bid to stem the problem at its source.
Colin Grewar, spokesman for the Ministry of Environment, noted that in November 2010, British Columbia, Oregon, Washington and California committed to new initiatives to address man-made marine debris, including collaborative action on packaging-product stewardship.
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