To the editor:
Re: “Dive group aims to hit the bottom,” July 11.
I’m very disappointed in your recent coverage of the effort to sink an-ex warship in a protected marine park in Howe Sound.
Your reporter seemed to miss that there is so much more to this issue.
U.S. President Barack Obama has stopped the American program of scrapping these naval ships into the sea, because even after expensive “clean-up” efforts, it’s not possible to rid the vessels of PCB contamination that has badly affected sea life.
In the case of the ex-HMCS Annapolis, Environment Canada is not doing enough. Earlier this year it let a tender to remove some PCB-laden components of the ship. If the vessel goes down in Halkett Bay, off Gambier Island, it will still be polluted above limits set by Canada’s law that prohibits release into the environment of polychlorinated biphenyls.
Add to that the fact that the B.C. government has paid $100,000 to aid an initiative by a diving group with only six members?
We need to put pressure on the government to examine what their motives are.
Colleen Dragan,
Vancouver
