bowl of split pea soup and is on the
way to becoming a Dead Sea.

This could happen to Kootenay Lake.

At Trail, the big Cominco empties
wastes into Rock Creek. Above Trail,
Rock Creek is crystal clear but after
Cominco’s plant empties hundreds of
thousands of gallons of waste into it,
the stream is a murky, brown grey.

In the Columbia River, Cominco’s
slag granulating plant empties its
wastes and the river now has an eight
foot wide border of black along its
edges. lt is a river in mourning for -it-
self.

Undeniably, without Cominco the
area would be dead economically, but
the area has been extremely good to
the company. In the last 60 years,
Cominco’s profits have totalled over
$700 million!

And B.C.’s pollution of water is not
as advanced as in the East. In Ontario,
Quebec and much of the Maritimes,
water pollution is a major problem.
The Great Lakes have become giant
cesspools and General McNaughton has
stated that the U.S. has destroyed its
water resources and now has set out
to plunder ours.

Here, in B.C., we still have vast
supplies of clean, pure water and if
we begin to institute controls we can
save our water resources for a cost
stil reckoned in millions, instead of
billions, as is the case in the U.S! And
in some places, the waters are unre-
deemable.

We do not as yet, have to re-use the
toilet flushings of our upstream neigh-
bors, as many Americans and Euro-
peans are compelled to do. Every drop
of water in the Rhine, for example, is
used and re-used seven times before
it reaches the North Sea.

In some places, detergents in the
water supply are such a problem that
the glass of water you draw from the
“tap emerges with a head on it, like
a glass of beer. As our population and
industries grow, we will face the same
threats of pollution.

We have a B.C. Pollution Control
Board which was set up in 1956. In
1964, the board’s budget was only
$2,000 and it had no staff.

In 1965, the budget was increased
to $25,000 and four engineers were put
on staff, largely due to public pressure.
The board has jurisdiction in the Fraser
and Columbia watersheds and Van-
couver Island. It has power to set limits
on industry, on. the amount of waste
it can discharge into rivers and on
sewage outlets.

However, these limits are mostly on
paper and are not being enforced. For
example, there are 360 sewage outlets
in the Lower Mainland (Greater Van-
couver, New Westminster arid sur-
rounding municipalities). Of these,
only 80 are under permit.

In order that the Pollution Control
Board do the job it must do, it needs
not thousands, but millions of dollars
to finance a great staff of trained peo-
ple, who can carry on the work of sys-
tematically sampling waters for chemi-

the
effluent
society

cal content, to build hundreds of samp-
ling stations, and carry out similar
projects. :

But water pollution is only one of
the hazards. Air pollution is another,
probably greater, danger.

The cost of air pollution is so great
that it extends the imagination. Air
over cities is now so charged with
chemicals, no one knows what is in it.
And it is not only city air which is
polluted; the situation is universal.

Trees along some B.C. hinterlands,
according. to one scientist, contain
enough poisonous lead from car ex-
hausts to kill deer which nibble on the
leaves.

Even the Greenland ice cap is dust-
ed with city soot and penguins at the
South Pole have DDT deposits in their
fat tissues as a result of crop spraying,
thousands of miles away.

Killer smogs have occured in many
of the world’s major cities. In Decem-
ber, 1952, 4,000 people died in London,
England over a five day smog buildup. .
In all places where smog is heavy,
there is a marked increase in cardiac

and respiratory illnesses. The Alberni
Valley in B.C. has twice the rate of
hospital admissions for respiratory dis-
eases than any other comparable area
in the province.

Vancouver's air pollution is basically
of the same nature as Los Angeles;
that is, an oxidizing smog. caused by .
the burning of petroleum fuels, both -:
from industry and automobiles.

Every day, cars in the Lower Main-
land pump into the air an estimated six
tons of sulphur oxide, six and a half
tons of carbon hydrogen, eight and a
half to 25 tons of oxides of nitrogen,
¥0 to 140 tons of hydro carbons and
1,160 ons of carbon monoxide.

Donald E. Carr, a research chemist
and author of the book “The Breath of
Life,” says that these fumes from cars,
the result of incomplete combustion of
fuel, are acted upon chemically by the
sun, beginning at dawn and carrying
on till dusk. The sun causes a reaction
and inteaction of these chemicals and
reproduces over 1,000 new killer chemi-
cals, says Carr.

1958 was the first year complete
records were kept of air samples taken
at five stations throughout Vancouver.
In the seven years since then, air pol-
lution has been reduced by about 75
percent—mostly because of conversion
to oil and gas from sawdust and coal,
and the elimination of smoke belching
burners by sawmills.

Not, it should be noted, because they
were forced to, but because forest pro-
duct companies found more profitable
ways to utilize their waste.

B.C.’s most obvious industrial nuis-
ances are the pulp and paper mills.
There are now 14 of these mills; eight
are being expanded, seven new ones
being built, five more are in the plan-
ning stage and three are proposed.

There is no such thing as an odor-
less kraft mill. Some describe the smell
as a septic tank stink. Premier Ben-
nett of B.C. has described it as “the
smell of money.” This ‘smell of
money,” according to chemists, consists
mainly of hydrogen sulphide and even
when mixed with several million times
its own volume of air, it can be very
odorous.

The B.C. Research Council has pro-
duced an oxydization tower which all
B.C. kraft mills now use. lt removes
about 98 percent of the gases, but the
remaining two percent can still pollute
the air for miles around.

Alberni creates the greatest air pol-
lution problem of any B.C. pulp mill
because of its location. Situated at the
top of a 40 mile long inlet, with only
sluggish tides to carry away wastes, it
takes three weeks or more for debris to
find its way to open water.

Two cities here, house 22,000 people
and the area is walled in by moun-
tains. When a cloud cover moves over
the Alberni Valley (as it frequently
does) the whole area becomes a giant
gas chamber.

The mill dumps about 27 tons of
polluted solids into the inlet daily and
only about one ton is carried away.

prosper. But it must be done undef

The rest sinks to the bottom. This”
builds up and periodically must be —
dredged, which usually results in Jarge
fish kills. A similar situation exists at
Columbia Cellulose, at Prince Rupert.

li is ironic that for generations civi- —
lized communities have imposed strict
regulations to ensure safe and sanitary —
food and yet have virtually no con
trols for air. While man can exist about —
five days without food or water, he
cannot live five minutes without air.
Every day, while we ingest about 2%
lbs. of food and 4% Ibs. of water, we
breathe in 30 Ibs. of air.

Dr. Wright, of the B.C. Research
Council, has stated that a public out-
cry is needed to stop this use of the
atmosphere as a sewer. There is no —
merit to the screaming of industry that
it can’t be done, the cost would be
ruinous, etc.

+

It has been done in some places and
industry has continued to grow and

the bayonet of the law. The exhaust
reducers added to cars in California,
which add a cost of only $80, are 4
step in the right direction.

Only seven of the 13 metropolitan
Vancouver municipalities have air pol-
lution by-laws and of these only Van-
couver has a small, full time inspection
staff.

In most cases, the worst offenders —
are outside municipal borders, in un —
organized territories and beyond thé —
reach of pollution by-laws.

Since there is no provincial air pol
lution legislation, the only control !§
the mill owner’s conscience—and this
is generally noticeably lacking, with —
first consideration given to the making
of profits.

Many municipalities- are hesitant t©
enaci anti-pollution laws, for fear ©
driving away industry which would
settle in a neighboring area without
controls and from there pollute suf
rounding areas, anyway. To many #
reeve and mayor, the smell of burning
sawdust or reek of a kraft mill is thé
scent of taxes.

Provincial restrictions, uniform fo!
all, would put an end to this. The B.C:
government Jast year strengthened il§
control over water pollution but is apa
thetic on the problem of air pollution.

What can be done?

An exhaustive air sampling progra™
should be undertaken; a complete 1°
ventory of aJl sources of pollution.

In Vancouver, an inversion tower (4
meteorological tool which measure?
temperatures at various heights an@ —
determines when a smog situation 1* ‘
developing) is an immediate need.
single tower would do the job fo!
Vancouver, at a cost of only $30,000.

Well trained people will be needed:
as well as the facilities with which t®
train them. Experts agree these thing —
are necessary to stop air pollution be —
fore it gets completely out of hand. }
filth, before it’s too late. '

The time has come to clean up thé ©