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June 2, 2010
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Better facilities for cats is the goal of a Coquitlam Animal Shelter fundraisers set for June 12 and 13.
Your source for local news, sports, weather and entertainment. www.thenownews.com
High-tech park plan on hold Simone Blais sblais@thenownews.com
Port Moody’s plans for a high-tech business park are over before they officially started. City officials confirmed Tuesday that council voted last week to shelve plans to create a high-tech business park once it became apparent that funding to develop a business plan was not available. Coun. Gerry Nuttall, who stepped down as the economic development committee vice-chair, said the business plan didn’t receive financial support from senior levels of government. “Because there was no funding available for doing up a business plan, council decided they couldn’t take the project any further,” Nuttall said. “They instructed the subcommittee to be disbanded, as there was no further work to be done on it.” The city’s economic development committee had approached both the Western Economic Diversification Canada fund as well as Port Moody-Coquitlam MLA Iain Black, who serves as minister of small business, technology and economic development. The city approached both provincial and federal governments for approximately $100,000 in funding to draft a business plan for the hightech park, but neither level of government had grants or funding available for preliminary projects like business plans. As a result, Mayor Joe Trasolini said, council voted last week to forgo the project and disband the subcommittee. “For the moment, the plans are shelved. I’m hoping they’ll CONT. ON PAGE 8, see ‘WE’RE.’
Kevin Hill/NOW
A massive concrete structure has been built to encase 30,000 cubic metres of material near the Coast Meridian Overpass in Port Coquitlam.
‘Contaminated’ soil near overpass City of Port Coquitlam plans to store material ‘in perpetuity’
Jennifer McFee jmcfee@thenownews.com A 207-metre-long lockbox structure runs alongside the Coast Meridian Overpass to store a material found on the site. But what exactly is being kept inside? The City of Port Coquitlam says the container is being used to store 30,000 cubic metres (one million cubic feet) of “carbon cruciate” material left behind by Kennametal Inc., a metal manufacturing company formerly located on the site. But Kennametal says it adheres to strict environmental standards and
has never even heard the term “carbon cruciate” before. Port Coquitlam’s transportation manager Dave Currie said carbon cruciate is “a type of waste that needs to be handled in a certain way.” “It’s material that was left over from the metal foundry works, the Kennametal property,” Currie said. Kennametal manufactured tungsten carbide metals on the PoCo property from the 1960s until about 1990. In 2002, Kennametal, which is based in Pennsylvania, sold the property to a member of The Beedie Group. The city later purchased a portion of the property — about 2.4 hectares (six acres) — from The Beedie Group for
the Coast Meridian Overpass project. As part of the purchase negotiations, Currie said, The Beedie Group agreed to remediate that specific area of the site to meet Ministry of Environment requirements. However, Currie could not provide an exact definition of the material on the site. “Let’s be clear — I’m not an environmental expert. It’s a type of waste that needs to be handled in a certain way, but it’s adequate to have it stored,” he said. “It’s being stored in perpetuity, and that’s consistent with Ministry of Environment expectations and requirements … And the city is committed to maintain that state.”
Currie also could not provide comment on whether the substance could be dangerous to plants, animals or soil. “It’s material that needs to be stored in a certain way. That’s all I can really say, is it needs to be stored in a certain way and we’re doing that,” he said. “In its condition at the end of this remediation and the completion of this storage cell by Beedie, then it will be in a condition that’s stable and can be maintained that way for the long term.” But Joy Chandler, Kennametal’s vice-president of corporate relations, CONTINUED ON PAGE 5, see ‘I AM.’
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