WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 2012
NEWS: College shifts to distance learning
PROFILE: Stitching some serious fun
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B.C. may relax forestry rules to rebuild BFP By Andrew Hudson Houston Today
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FATAL Crash
A 56-year-old Houston man has died following a fatal accident March 19 on Highway 16 about 1.5 km east of Six Mile Hill. Ice and snow may have been factors, but RCMP say they are still investigating what caused the accident.
Forestry rules protecting scenic corridors, wildlife and old growth may have to be relaxed or abandoned to secure enough timber for a new sawmill in Burns Lake. BC Liberal MLA John Rustad said on Wednesday that the province’s Burns Lake recovery task force, which began analyzing the timber supply weeks ago, is coming up against some hard numbers. “It’s going to be very, very difficult,” he said. Hampton Affiliates held a licence to cut 1.1 million cubic metres before a Jan. 20 explosion and fire tore through its sawmill, killing two workers and putting 250 more out of work.
“ “You can see the dilemma.”
- John Rustad
In addition, Rustad said Burns Lake’s pellet plant was taking in another 800,000 cubic metres of timber. Combined, the mill and the pellet plant require between 1.4 and 1.8 million cubic metres of timber to run. But in three to ten years, Rustad said the pine-beetle infestation in the Lakes District timber supply area could drop the allowable cut from 2 million to just 550,000 cubic metres a year. “That’s the challenge we’re facing.” See RULES on Page 3
Doctor questions increasingly discoloured tap water By Andrew Hudson Houston Today
After seeing Houston’s tap water get more and more discoloured, a local pediatrician has asked Northern Health to investigate. Dr. Clare Moisey, who has worked in Houston for 20 years,
sent a letter to the health authority last week to report a significant amount of new discolouration in the water over the last six to eight months. “At times, the water in the toilet will look as though someone with hematuria [bloody urine] had used the toilet and not flushed,”
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“Houston water is very protected.”
he wrote. t “During the day, this will settle out and the water will become a reasonable coloura-
- Doug Quibell tion.” High manganese has long been a problem in Houston’s water supply. Residents vot-
ed last April to reject a $4.5-million water treatment system that would remove manganese from the water. Doug Quibell, northwest manager of public health protection, was part of the consulting team that helped the District of Houston decide on that proposal.
When it comes to a health risk, Quibell said Houston water is well protected. Four wells pump water into Houston’s system, he said, and samples taken at each well consistently pass tests for bacteria and chemicals that pose a risk to human health. Only one element,
manganese, regularly exceeds Canada’s guidelines on drinking water, Quibell said, adding the guideline in question is only meant to control taste and visual quality. “But it never gets within 40 per cent of the health-based guideline,” he said. See WATER on Page 3