thursday April 2, 2015 Vol. 30 • No. 27 ••• $1.25 inc. G.S.T.
COMOX VALLEY
ARTS
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CLT in final prep stages for Quartet page 15
CFL players presenting Game Ready Football Camp page 21
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Water operator fears health risk with old pump Sandwick Water Works employee says concerns have fallen on deaf ears Scott Stanfield Record Staff
Dale Presly hopes the Walkerton tragedy will never repeat itself, but the operator for the Sandwick Water Works Improvement District harbours serious concerns about what he believes is a faulty pump. He feels the Puntledge River intake, or Pump No. 4, is no longer a reliable source of potable water. In fact, based on water
Meet a 12-year-old playwright ... Page 3
quality and low water conditions characteristics.” that existed last summer, he The Puntledge intake is a surbelieves the intake poses a threat face water source. Unlike well water, surface water requires a to public health. The pump is located near the multi-barrier treatment approach swimming pool at Lewis Park, to make it safe to drink. This, says Presly, explains which is downstream from agriwhy the Island Walkerton was a culture operations. Health Drinking If contaminated chlorination problem. Water Treatment surface water We have the same for Surface Water enters a public Supplies Policy, water supply, as it problems. known as the 4-3did in the WalkerMike Butler 2-1 water treatton tragedy, death ment protocol, is can result. in place. “It’s the agriculture runoff “Pump No. 4 should be decomthat’s the big concern,” Presly missioned, unless it’s upgraded to said. “Generally in a water sys- a full 4-3-2-1, but we’re talking tem, you don’t mix surface and close to $2 million to do that,” Preground water. It’s an unwritten sly said. “We need another well, rule. Well water has different pH essentially.”
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Braidwood a priority for council ..... Page 4
The Sandwick District provides water to about 680 lots in and around Mission Hill. Some lots are within the City of Courtenay. The district uses about 80 million gallons of water per year. Last year, Pump No. 4 supplied about 18 per cent of the area’s water. Two other pumps supply ground water. The Sandwick board has applied to drill another well near Mitchell and Huband. Re-activating another pump or opening a connection with Courtenay are also options. “We’d like to get rid of the river one (Pump No. 4) too,” said board chair Mike Butler, who has been with the district since 1963.
... see Water ■ 5
Caring
about health care Photo by Erin Haluschak
Public health-care advocates took to the streets Tuesday morning in front of St. Joseph's Hospital in Comox, joining others across the province who protested federal Conservative cuts to health care. It was part of a national day of action drawing attention to $36 billion in reductions in federal health-care transfers over the next decade to B.C. and other provinces. Members of the Hospital Employees' Union, CUPE, the Council of Canadians and other organizations had representatives at the rally.
Handicap stalls not wide enough ... Page 7 The Hornby Island Free Store is set to re-open in a brand new building.
BC Ferries prices jumped by 2.9 per cent on April 1. Not an April Fool's joke.
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