slative Library. varilanent Bldg@es sol Victoria, B. Ce Nagle on The Trade CasNews sports colum- Brendon Nogle a second look at the Gretzky deal... B1 CasNews about Charters on service columnist John Charters tells us service restaurant industry in the LOTTERY NUMBERS The winning numbers in Saturday's Lotto 6- 49 draw were 11, 24, 35, 45, 46 bonus number was 40. The $1,000,000 winning number in Friday's Provincial lottery draw is 4446755. The winning numbers drawn Friday in The Pick lottery were 11, 22, 23, 36, 39, 42, 45 and 55. and 48. The create four jobs Federal job grant Kootenay West MP Bob Brisco announced a $22,800 grant thot will A2 Castl Sy. psar News Monday will be cloudy and coo! mid-20s. Chane: WEATHERCAST Sunny today-with o few cloudy periods in the of i afternoon or e s showers. Highs ni with highs in the ‘of precipitation is 10 per cent today and 20 per cent Monday CASTLEGAR, BRITISH COLUMBIA, SUNDAY, AUGUST 14, 1988 Vol. 41, No. 65 oe 2 Sections (A & B) 60 Cents By RON NORMAN Editor A 25-year-old Surrey man es- caped unhurt after the transport truck he was driving crashed Wednesday afternoon on Celgar Road just north of the Castlegar ferry landing. Paul Herle was southbound in a flatbed transport truck owned by Utility Freightway Ltd. of TOPPLED TRUCK . . . Tow truck crew works to pull transport truck upright and haul it away following accident late Wednesday at- Langley about 3 p.m. when the truck flipped while attempting to negotiate a curve between the ferry landing and the railway crossing. The truck had just picked up a load of scrap metal from Celgar pulp mill. The metal was strewn across the road and down a 10-metre embankment toward the Columbia River. ING CURVE x ONT ON | ternoon on Celgar Road. Driver escaped from crash unharmed, but truck sustained $90,000 damage. Driver escapes truck crash The truck ended up sprawled on its side in the opposite lane, straddling the road. RCMP closed the road for two hours while tow truck crews righted the truck and hauled it away Herle told the Castlegar News at the accident scene that he jumped to safety through the broken windshield almost im- mediately after the truck had CosNews Photo by Ron Norman come to a stop: He said he got out so quickly the first people on the scene didn’t realize he was the driver and asked if there was anybody in the truck “When you wanna get out, you get out,"” he said. The truck sustained $90,000 in damages. Police say charges are pending. ON WATER ISSUES Bell praised, rapped By BONNE MORGAN Staff Writer The chairman of B.C. Hydro was in Castlegar Thursday to hear local concerns about water issues — and hear them he did. Larry Bell, who was here as part of a three-day tour of Kootenay dams, met with both praise and criticism on everything from fish and wildlife to possible power generation projects. “1 really enjoy this,” he said following the two-hour-long breakfast meeting at the Fireside Inn with local parks built,’’ Bell said in response to Mayor Audrey Mioore’s questions about a mitigation package. There was concern expressed at the meeting that land owned by B.C. Hydro along the Arrow Lakes might be sold off if decisions on parks are not made. ‘These issues have been very slow to be resolved. I am going to go back and find out myself why,”’ Bell said after the meeting. He said a lack of focus on the part of B.C. Hydro, in addition to tech- politicians, repr tives and outdoor enthusiasts. While Bell indicated he is sym- pathetic to recreational concerns, he made it clear that profit must be weighed against the environment. ‘I'm going to go away and think about it. I think there is a number of things that we can do,"’ he said. “We've got to remember how enormously important they (the Ar- row Lakes) are for power, for indus- tries in the province."’ Bell was held accountable for Hy- dro's responsibility to compensate for the effects of flooding caused by Columbia River treaty dams. **We would like to see the com- mitment met. We would like to see nical might be respon- sible “To dispose of some of the prop- erties, we need to redefine the prop- erty lines and that legal process is excruciating.” Kootenay West MP Bob Brisco also criticized Hydro. Saying he felt “‘bitter’’ towards the Crown corpor- ation, Brisco said the area’s excellent fishing is kept a secret because there is no proper development to provide access to it “We should be getting our fair share,”’ he said. “‘Other areas are developed and we are ignored." Brisco said mitigation funds set aside have “not really (been) ac- counted for."’ prob! . He warned that the Murphy Creek dam which Bell said is forecast to be built after the Site C and Hugh Keenleyside power generating proj- ects, would further damage fishing if no locks are built into the dam “| shudder when I hear you say you have Murphy Creek on your hit list,’ he said. ‘‘Water traffic ends at Murphy Creek and the best fishing in lower B.C. is gone forever.”’ The Nelson Rod and Gun Club said it wants funds from the .mitiga- tion package for loss of fishing and hunting die to the dams “We are asking for an annual allowance back to the fish and wild- life branches so we can fund this place properly,’’ said Jesse Ridge Richard Fillmore of the Trail Wild- life Association says funds already allocated are not enough to compen- sate for the damage caused by food- ing. “We warit to be considered as @ part of the process,"’ he saids The Castlegar District Wildlife As- sociation explained that low water and electrical storms earlier this year damaged its net pen containing 50,000 rainbow trout. The pen sus- continued on page A2 Forestry talks to resume By CasNews Staff The International Woodworkers of America-Canada hopes to resume contract talks with Westar Timber’s Castlegar sawmill later this month, the IWA-Canada regional president said Friday Wayne Nowlin said he would like to get back to the bargaining table Aug. 24, if that date is acceptable to Wade Zammit, general manager at Westar's Southern Wood Products sawmill. Nowlin, head of the Local 1-405 which represents 250 workers at the sawmill, said he hadn't had a chance to discuss the date with Zammit The proposed talks follow on the heels of three earlier settlements i ing unicaized or the coast, the southern interior and northern interior. Northern interior forest companies reached a tentative contract agree- ment Thursday with the TWA-Can- ada. The three-year agreement was reached one day after a settlement with southern interior companies. continued on poge AZ Ci ty hit by water shortage By BRENDAN NAGLE Staff Writer Damage to a 13,000-volt under- ground electric supply cable brought Castlegar’s water pressure down for nearly three hours Thursday. The cable runs from Celgar to the Arrow Lake pumphouse near the Hugh Keenleyside dam At first, the transformer at the pumphouse was suspected as being the reason for the loss of power. Officials thought it would take four to 24 hours to fix the problem until they found out the cable, not the trans- former, was responsible for loss of power to the pumphouse. The power went out at about 4:45 p-m. Thursday and city fire trucks were dispatched into the streets to alert residents of the problem. Fire- fighters drove up and down the streets warning residents via a loud- speaker to reduce their water con- sumption because of a shortage due to the power failure “There was a significant reduction in the demand for water following the public request,”’ city engineer Kevin Lagan told the Castlegar News. ‘‘It worked very well.”’ Dick Wigen, plant engineer at Cel gar pulp mill, said the cable “blew to ground’’ stopping the flow of elec- tricity from the pulp mill to the pumphouse transformer. “It was just a fault in the cable,"’ Wigen told the Castlegar News. ‘It happened near an original cable splice but the splice wasn’t the problem, it just blew to ground.”’ Wigen said power was restored to the pumphouse when the power supply was transferred to an existing overhead line. The underground line is expected to be fixed early this week “We'll have experts coming in probably on Monday Thursday's power failure reduced the available water supply to 8,400- litres-per-minute, compared with the 27,000-litres-pet-minute the pump supplies the city during peak water usage. Lagan said the peak time for water demand in the city is usually during the early evenig so it was im- portant to alert Castlegar residents about the power outage because the demand for water at that time would have far out-stripped the supply By 7:25 Thursday night the power to the pumphouse transformer was restored, returning the city’s water supply to normal levels. Lagan said the city’s water con- sumption rises to about 31.8-million litres of water per day at this time of year, mainly due to the use of sprinklers. In 1980, the City of Castlegar and Celgar worked out an agreement which let the city tap into Celgar's water pipeline just above the pulp mill The agreement gives Castlegar 12 more years of water and electricity to power the city pump — which was purchased as part of the deal — free of charge Hydro preparing for major projects By BONNE MORGAN Staff Writer B.C. Hydro is spending more than $50 million to ensure it can begin construction on its top priority hydro- electric generation project as soon as power demands are there. “We've already spent $50 million on Site’ C. Another 10 (million dollars) would take it to being ready for construction,’’ Hydro chairman Larry Bell said in Castlegar Thurs- day. Hydro’s priorities for major power generating projects are “‘Site C. Keenleyside and Murphy Creek, in that order," according to Bell, who said those three dams are the most cost-effective Bell said the projects be brought to the stage where construc tion can begin within two months and the projects completed within six years will Hydro is also studying the pos sibility of power generation on the Brilliant and Waneta dams, which are owned by Cominco Ltd Bell was in Castlegar as part of a three-day tour of Hydro’s Columbia River system. He , said increasing demands for power have pushed ahead forecasted power require ments. “It looks as though it (forecasted power requirements) has advanced by about two years as a result of pulp mills requiring more power,” said Bell. But, he pointed out that there are a number of other options being con: sidered which could delay a major power project, which is approximate ly 10 years off. Until after the turn of the century Hydro plans to meet new demand for electricity through coordination of generation with other utilities, pur chasing energy from other suppliers, such as Alcan, and Bonneville Power mand through ures “If there's three co-generation pulp mills that are cheaper then we will use them,"’ Bell said Co-generation would involve Hydro agreeing to purchase part of the power developed by pulp mills from smaller hydroelectric projects in streams. Hydro’s recent deal with Alcan Aluminum Ltd. is another reason it may delay any major project Hydro and Alcan recently reached a 20-year agreement for Hydro to purchase 2,500 gigawatt hours (GW.h) annually beginning in 1995 from Alcan’s $600 million Kemano project near Kitimat The purchase is about one-third the power-generated by the Revel- stoke dam and Hydro calculates it will reduce the Crown corporation's revenue requirement by about $500 million by 2015. conservation meas- That $500 million is the saving Hydro will realize over the next best least-cost alternative, which is con- sidered to be the Site C dam Bell also cited conservation as & factor in reducing power demand. Hydro has 30 projects designed to convince consumers to conserve en- ergy Hydro is considering contracting @ private company to build its major generation projects if it can be found to be cheaper. Bell said it has already studied three such projects on the Keenleyside dam. The Castlegar and District Devel- opment Board asked Bell if it could have access to those studies “We currently have two companies who’ are interested, but what we need are those plans so we can entice a comany to come,"’ Harry Stan said after the meeting Bell was receptive to the de- and ing the de- board's request.