CANADIAN, EH?
ROLLING AT 50
We’re a proud people — mostly A5
Rolling Stones perform on 50th anniversary A2
CENTRAL ALBERTA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
BREAKING NEWS ONLINE AT WWW.REDDEERADVOCATE.COM
MONDAY, NOV. 26, 2012
Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS
Toronto Argonauts players hold the Grey Cup after defeating the Calgary Stampeders on Sunday, in Toronto. The Argonauts claimed a place in Canadian football history Sunday when they were crowned the 100th Grey Cup champions in front of a sellout crowd. Many of the 53,000 CFL fans packed into Roger Centre rose to their feet and erupted into deafening roar as the final seconds ticked off the Argos’ 35-22 win. Coverage starts on B1.
FESTIVAL OF TREES
Christmas cheer abounds BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
Chris Teichreb is a water quality specialist with Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resources Development.
Water withstood oil spill TREATMENT PLANTS NOT DESIGNED FOR HYDROCARBONS BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF When trace amounts of the chemical cocktail spawned by a river oil spill reached the City of Red Deer’s water treatment plant last June, it wasn’t clear what would happen. Water treatment plants are designed to handle various biological and parasitic threats to safe drinking water, not hydrocarbons such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene. “We weren’t sure what was going to happen when we did see the hydrocarbons coming down (the river),” said Chris Teichreb, an Alberta Environment water quality specialist. “We thought maybe the water filtration they have at the plant will remove some of these hydrocarbons.” However, later testing showed the Red Deer’s water treatment plant and the Anthony Henday plant in Innisfail were not effective in removing hydrocarbons. “Concentration of benzene, tolu-
PLEASE RECYCLE
ene or xylenes did not appreciably decrease from raw intake water to pre-chlorination to post treatment,” says an Interim Water Quality Report from Plains Midstream Canada and Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development issued 11 days after the June 7 spill of up to 3,000 barrels of light sour crude oil. On the plus side, drinking water was affected very little by the much-diluted hydrocarbons. “While drinking water plants did not appear to remove significant quantities of the petroleum hydrocarbons in their treatment process, concentrations of all parameters examined were well below Health Canada drinking water guidelines and thus were unlikely to pose a risk to human health.” Teichreb said the water treatment plants are not designed to filter out hydrocarbons, which are not normally present in the river.
Please see WATER on Page A2
WEATHER
INDEX
Cloudiness. High -5, low -15.
Four sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C3,C4 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5,A6 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D1-D4 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-B5
FORECAST ON A2
Westerner Park was the epicentre of Christmas cheer this weekend. The 19th edition of the Festival of Trees was once again a glittering, tinsel-draped success. Red Deer’s Jocelyn Melbourne was there with three-year-old daughter Sydnie, who was all eyes for the dozens of imaginatively decorated trees that were to be raffled off in a silent auction. “I like the purple ones,” said Sydnie. This was the second visit to the festival for the Melbournes and the first where Sydnie was old enough to appreciate the Christmas magic around her. “We haven’t made it to Candy Cane Lane yet,” said Jocelyn, “because I don’t think we’ll get out once we get in there.” Melbourne said she loves to decorate her tree each year and enjoyed looking at other decorators’ creations. “I like to see other people’s ideas. There are so many (trees) I really love.” Heather Hawkins brought along sons Allan, 6, and Nathan, 4. “It’s great family time,” the Lacombe resident said of the event that wrapped up on Sunday. “It gets us into the Christmas spirit and the boys love the Candy Cane Lane. “I hope we win the playhouse. It’s mas-
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
Enveloped in a giant bubble Alexa Doll, 4, of Red Deer reaches out to poke a hole at the Festival of Trees on Friday afternoon. The 19th Annual Festival of Trees in Support of the Red Deer Regional Hospital Foundation ran through the weekend at Westerner Park. sive,” she said with a laugh. The $15,000 playhouse was among the auction items and it had the stamp of approval from no less a personality than Canada’s most
trusted contractor, Mike Holmes. “We’re having a lot of fun,” said Amanda Parsons, of Red Deer.
See FESTIVAL on Page A3
ALBERTA
WORLD
WILDROSE TO BETTER VET CANDIDATES
BANGLADESH FACTORY FIRE CLAIMS OVER 100
Alberta Wildrose leader Danielle Smith says that even though she believes in standing up for her candidates, the party must do a better job at vetting candidates. A3
At least 112 people were killed in a fire that raced through a multi-story garment factory just outside of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, an official said Sunday. A5