Burnaby NOW • Saturday, October 2, 2010 • A03
8 Heights traffic woes ENVIRONMENT
9 PAC funding restored
13 Bureau gets toy room
HEALTH
Ministry keeps eye on oil leak Environment Minister doesn’t want taxpayers to have to pick up tab for cleanup Jennifer Moreau staff reporter
The Environment Ministry is keeping an eye on the Chevron refinery oil leak in north Burnaby, but it’s going to take a while to stop the leeching material. “Our position is it should be polluters who pay for the cost of cleanup instead of taxpayers, so we’ll be working with Chevron to make sure we do what is required,” said Environment Minister Barry Penner. A mix of gas, diesel and crude oil has been running off Chevron’s Burnaby site at least since April. Groundwater is carrying the material offsite, and it has showed up in a ditch downhill from the refinery and on a beach in the Burrard Inlet. Chevron is using underground wells to collect the groundwater before it migrates offsite, and crews are continuing to spot clean Barry Penner the beach. Environment John Werring, Minister a biologist with the David Suzuki Foundation, said Chevron has known for at least a decade that the site is contaminated and that contaminated material is migrating offsite. “What is clear is that the site is leaking, and leaking badly, and will continue to do so unless drastic measures are taken to capture and treat all of the groundwater migrating offsite,” Werring wrote in an e-mail to the NOW. Penner said the Environment Ministry has received a new report from Chevron on their plans to deal with the current leak, but it’s going to take a while. Penner said there are probably thousands of old industrial sites in B.C. that would qualify as contaminated. “It happens unfortunately. Leak Page 4
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Larry Wright/burnaby now
Shutting down: Dawn McKenna, executive director of the Burnaby-based Down Syndrome Research Foundation, at the door of the MEG brain scanner room. The scanner will have to be shut down for six months due to lack of funding.
Plug pulled on brain scanner
Lack of funds forces foundation to shut down brain scanner for six months disrupting research Jennifer Moreau staff reporter
The Burnaby-based Down Syndrome Research Foundation is shutting down its state-of-the-art brain scanner for six months due to lack of funding. “We can’t afford to keep it running,” said Dawn McKenna, the foundation’s executive director. The magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanner measures the magnetic fields that occur in the brain when neurons fire with millisecond accuracy. Numerous researchers from across the country and even the U.S. have used the scanner in Burnaby, which is the only one of its kind this side of Toronto. “We’re the only organization of our kind in the world, that has our breadth and our scope, that is not housed in a university or hospital setting,” said McKenna. “We are totally independent.”
Tony Herdman from the Michael Smith and he works out of the Down Syndrome Foundation for Health Research said the Research Foundation. McKenna said Ribary shutdown will impact research dramatical- was brought to the foundation because of ly. For example, there’s an ongoing inves- the scanner. “That was a provincial mantigation into how very premadate to improve research in this ture babies’ brains have devel“The government province, and he can’t even use oped after spending time in the MEG for six months of the an neonatal intensive-care unit of Canada has year because we can’t afford to as infants. The children in the not put a lot of run it,” she said. research study, who are now Ribary said the shutdown around seven or eight years funding recently was unacceptable. old, need to have regular brain into those orga“It’s counter productive, scans for the research. While nizations, and and people are afraid of losing researchers wait six months till or they can’t write grants the scanner is running again, competition gets grants because they need it operational the children’s brain are develtougher every for 12 months,” he said. “To me, oping and they’ve lost that it doesn’t make sense as a neuwindow of opportunity to colyear.” roscientist.” lect data, he explained. The foundation got the scan“We can’t be specific anyDAWN McKENNA Executive Director, Down ner five years ago, and it’s comore, we have to generalize,” Syndrome Research owned by the foundation and Herdman said of the study. Foundation Simon Fraser University. It costs Urs Ribary is an internaabout $250,000 to $300,000 a tionally known neuroscientist year to run the MEG lab, mainly and the LEEF B.C. Leadership Chair for cognitive neuroscience in child- because the scanner requires helium to run hood health and development. His posi- and staff to analyze the data, which can tion is one of 14 research chairs set up by be expensive. Sept. 30 was the last helium the provincial government to encourage Scanner Page 4 social and economic development in B.C.,
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