ss ca Castlegar News July 25, 1990 PROVINCIAL NEWS Pulp odor sparks KAMLOOPS (CP) — A man suing Weyerhaeuser Canada Ltd. claims Kamloops smells like a toilet because of odors emitted from the company’s pulp mill. Laurence Payne, a writer and artist who works and lives part-time in Kamloops, has filed suit against the firm in small claims court. He is seeking compensation for what he describes as noxious odors that violate his right to breathe clean ai “I have indeed suffered,’’ Payne told Judge Ross Simpson. ‘The smell, your honor, makes me feel nauseous."” Rare B.C. owl studied KAMLOOPS (CP) — It’s 1 a.m. and Richard Howie is in the middle of a forest, up an aluminum ladder, holdi ‘ish net above his head. Just above the net is a woodpecker hole. Earlier when Howie climbed the ladder, a rare flammulated owl flew out of that hole and vanished in the dark woods. Howie, who co-ordinates naturalist programs for the B.C. parks branch, is waiting for it to return. His patience is rewarded. There, fluttering like a moth in a flashlight beam, is one of the rarest, most secretive birds in Canada. Until a few years ago, the tiny flammulated owl — which seldom grows taller than 17 centimetres — was all but invisible in British Colum- bia, the only province in Canada where it is found. Howie’s research has shed light about the owl’s presence in British Columbia. And resource managers are now preparing to reshape logging plans in the Kamloops forest district, where the population seems to be cen- tered. Unlike spotted owls, which need old growth to survive and have halted logging in U.S. forests, the flam- mulated owl appears compatible with logging. “They cannot survive in anything approaching clear-cutting but they can survive in , selectively cut habitat,”’ says Howie. The owl in Howie’s net is weighed, measured, and a small silver band is crimped around its right leg, making it one of only four ‘‘flams’’ ever ban- ded in the Kamloops forest, about 260 kilometres northeast of Vancouver. The owl, which gets its name from flame-shaped markings on its plum- mage, has historically been con- sidered very rare. The first flammulated owl was found in Canada at Penticton in 1902 It was dead. The second bird was collected near Kamloops in 1935 and three more sightings were made up to 1977. That was all ornithologists had in 75 years — five sightings. Fewer than 10 people had seen the owls alive. One of those who had was Steve Cannings, who found an owl in his Summerland garage in 1947. Cannings, then a photographer for Agriculture Canada, was a knowledgeable birder but he thought what he’d found was a baby screech owl. It wasn’t until his sons were sor- ting his files in 1972, to write a paper about Okanagan birds, that the owl was identified. MOVING isn't half so HECTIC... When it is followed by a Welcome Wagon call! Heather — 365-5490 Smells ‘like a toilet’ Payne told the court that his sen- sibilities as an artist have suffered because of the odors. They make him sick and prevent him from opening windows, he said. “The town smells like a public toilet,’’ he said. Payne’s suit focuses on one day — last March 31 — when he claims the smell was particularly bad. Company lawyer Ross Switzer asked Simpson in a preliminary motion to dismiss Payne’s case again- mS 7g ry st Weyerhaeuser. Arguing that there is a distinction between private and public-nuisance cases, Switzer said Payne’s action was based on public nuisance and should be thrown out, He said- public-nuisance cases are pursued by the Attorney General's Ministry and not private citizens. Simpson wondered whether small claims court was the right place for Payne’s case, suggesting that B.C. Supreme Court might have been a more appropriate forum. INVENTORY lawsuit “I fail to see how any amount of money would make you feel any bet- ter," Simpson said. “IT would feel the judicial system recognized that I had been affected and I had been compensated to some extent,’’ Payne responded. Simpson will rule later on Switzer’s motion, but he set a trial date for Aug. 24. Outside the court, Payne said he couldn't afford the time and expense of pressing his case in a higher court. The upper limit to awards in small claims court is $3,000. -BAR- DINING LOUNGE CELGAR, WESTAR & COMINCO MEAL te ieee el ig VOUCHERS ACCEPTED _,Waight Scale in Ootischenia — LICENCED DINING ROOM SATURDAY July 28, 1990 Vol. 43, No. 60 Castlegar, B.C. 3 Sections (A, B & GC) if 75 Cents ee cm Ball playoffs Dioxin threat start tonight questioned re i WEATHER Tonight: Clear, Lows 12°-14°, Sunday Sunny. Highs near 30°. The dutlook is for continuing sunshine with on increasing risk of showers late Tuesday. 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IKALAWSKY PONTIAC BUICK GMC (1989) LTD. —— THE KING OF CARS ® 1700 Columbia Ave., Castlegar OL 365-2155 Collect TRAIL, FRUITVALE, ROSSLAND CUSTOMERS CALL 364-0213 C; -<+le ~~ car Se News High-tech silviculture --- AZ Tower talks slated By CasNews Staff Mayor Audrey Moore will meet Monday morning in Vancouver with federal Justice Minister Kim Cam- pbell and Ross Belsher, Parliamentary secretary to Transport Minister Doug Lewis, to discuss Transport Canada’s plan to pull air traffic controllers from the tower at Castlegar Airport and replace them with staff from the flight service station. Also scheduled to attend the meeting are Bruce Strachan, B.C.’s minister of advanced education, representatives from the office of Provincial Secretary Howard Dirks and the provincial government's air services branch, Selkirk College president Leo Perra and college board chairman Elizabeth Fleet, Moore said. “We hope to have a good and productive meeting,” she said. Selkirk College representatives and Strachan are involved because Tran- sport Canada’s plan to remove the controllers is expected to hurt Selkirk College’s aviation program. Transport Canada officials say the number of aircraft movements at Castlegar is less than half the number needed to justify the use of controllers at the airport and that safety will not be compromised by switching to flight service specialists only. However, the plan has met fierce opposition-from local politicians and the aviation industry who point out please see TOWER page A2 Jobs for students scarce By CasNews Staff The recent strike at Cominco and wet weather in the spring have con- tributed to a decline in the number of students who found summer em- ployment in the Castlegar-Trail area, sjudent placement officer Rajesh Gandha said. The annual ‘‘odd-job competition”’ from July 9-18 — which coincided with the Cominco strike — produced please see STUDENTS page A2 Local members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers put up an information picket line around th. th post office Wednesday aft: to make public some of their grievances against Cosnews photo by Heather Hodley Canada Post. Postal workers take protest to the public Wiebe said. Postal union president Bill En- stead said similar protests were scheduled to take place across the country Wednesday in a coor- dinated plan laid out at the union's annual convention last month “They decided then that we had to have some sort of job action to bring to the public’s attention what's going on, so this part of the program,’’ Enstead said. He said there is another ‘‘program”’ planned for next month but he didn’t have the details on it yet. “I'll let you know when we get closer (to the date of the protest). It might be a similar thing to what we did ( .”* he said. By ED MILLS Staff Writer Members of the local chapter of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers set up an information picket outside the Castlegar post office Wednesday to protest, among other things, what it calls stalling tactics in contract nego- tiations by the Crown-owned cor- poration. About 12 off-duty postal em- ployees stood outside the office in the rain handing out pamphlets and talking to passers-by in the three-hour information picket which began at 2 p.m. “We've been negotiating now for 16, 18 months and nothing has happened. We want a contract,”” said protester and past union president Ben Fietz. ‘‘We’re just trying to show we're concerned and interested in our future. (We) just wanted to get that infor- mation out to the public.’” The union was also protesting Canada Post's use of the so-called super mail boxes, the priv- vatization of some services and lack of job security, and had separate handouts —provided by its national office — covering all three issues. Acting superintendent of the Castlegar post office, Art Wiebe said business at the post office was not affected by the picket “As far as we understood, it was just an information picket and things went smoothly — no interruptions, no inc ience,”’ Scientists to conduct seismic test By CasNews Staff 7? A team of university and gover- nment scientists will be in Castlegar next month to conduct seismic resear- ch designed to give a better under- standing of the earth's crust under southern British Columbia and to determine the setting in which ear- thquakes occur in the area. The research, called a ‘‘seismic refraction experiment,”’ uses chemical explosives detonated in drill holes up to 40 metres (140 feet) deep, says Ron Clowes, director of Lithoprobe, ‘Canada’s national geoscience project, which is conducting the research. Seismographic instruments deployed along a line up to 400 kilometres from the source of the ex- plosions measure the seismic waves from: the blasts and the data are then studied to determine the ‘nature of the area's geology. “The seismographs are placed alongside existing roads at intervals of 1.5 km,’’ Clowes says in a letter to Mayor Audrey Moore, a copy of which was also sent to the Castlegar News. ‘‘The procedures for the ex- periment will follow all provincial and federal regulations pertaining to geophysical surveys and the use of ex- plosives and their environmental im- pact. Thus there will be no permanent damage. Clowes says Lithoprobe will clean up all ‘‘shot sites’’ and all work will be carried out “‘in a manner that in- sures safety for the public and the landowners in the area."’ Most of the sites are on Crown land and none are within the Castlegar municipal boundaries, Clowes says. The crew conducting the ex- periment will be based at Selkirk College from Aug. 13-24. “The objective of our refraction program is to obtain reliable scientific information about the subsurface in southern British Columbia,’” Clowes says. ‘‘This information will be of significant long-term value to citizens of the province."” Among the goals of the research: © To determine the structure and method by which the continental crust has been formed in the mountain belts of southern B.C.; © To establish a __ regional framework, within which scientists know various minerals and hydrocar- bons — such as natural gas, oil and coal — have accumulated, and how this relates to why commercial quan- tities occur in certain areas and not others; and © To determine the structure and setting in which earthquakes occur in southern B.C., thereby providing more detailed scientific information which can help define building codes and hazardous regions so that com- munities and buildings may be made as safe as possible “*It may be noted that when similar studies were carried out in California, earthquakes were able to be located with better accuracy and were found to occur in well-defined and restricted trends, particularly along pre-existing fault lines,’’ Clowes says. ‘‘To deter- mine precisely the location of the ear- thquakes, it is necessary to have a very good knowledge of the structures and the speed with which seismic waves travel in the (earth's) crust Otherwise earthquakes are mislocated and yield misleading patterns.” Clowes says the only way to gather such knowledge is through the type of experiment which will be conducted around Castlegar Lithoprobe is Canada’s national, collaborative earth science research project established to answer fun- damental questions about the nature and evolution of the earth’s solid crust extending to a depth of about 100 km beneath Canada and its surrounding oceans a The studies are being carried out by university scientists in cooperation with the federal Geological Survey of Canada. Provincial government geological surveys and industrial scientists dre also involved in many aspects of the project GETTING FORESTRY FACTS > =< Conflict bill sparks spat in legislature VICTORIA (CP) — Members of the B.C. legislature were poised for vacation Thursday when the scandal- plagued Social Credit government in- troduced controversial conflict of in- terest legislation. Instead of the fourth session of the 34th Parliament ending by supper- time, the bill touched off a sometimes-bitter debate well into the night and forced members to return Friday NDP house leader Mark Rose said he arranged with government house leader Claude Richmond to close the session, but all deals were off with the introduction of the conflict islation. “He (Richmond) went to his caucus and his caucus wouldn't let him with- draw it,”” Rose said. “It’s a pretty cynical way to end this session, one that has been wracked with scandal, and Social Credit can’t even do conflict of in- terest right,”” said NDP leader Mike Harcourt, The bill provides for appointment of an independent commissioner to decide conflict of interest cases in- volving members of the legislature The commission would be appoin- ted for five years on the recommen- dation of the premier and approval of two-thirds of the legislature Members would be required to file financial disclosure statements within 60 days of being elected. The law would prohibit members from using insider information or thier positions to further interests. Penalties for would range from a reprimand to a member losing his seat Peter Dueck resigned from cabinet two months ago amid conflict of in- terest allegations involving a trip paid by a medical services company while he was health minister. Bud Smith quit as attorney general two weeks ago after surreptitiously taped car radiophone conversations suggested he tried to disparage a lawyer hired by the NDP to prosecute a former cabinet colleague for breach of trust In all, seven of nine Social