Civil disobedienCe just beginning: MP
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short honeyMoon for newly eleCted
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Friday, December 5, 2014 NewsLeader A1
not just shoPPing to worry about
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this group of urchins really knows how to make it on their own. See Page A12
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December 5 2014 www.burnabynewsleader.com
Twelve months with no elevator Users shocked about SkyTrain Station reno plans Wanda chow
wchow@burnabynewsleader.com
mArIO bArTeL/NeWSLeADer
Peter huang takes careful aim as he takes advantage of tuesday’s sunshine to work on his archery technique at the burnaby lake sports Complex range.
SO2 levels a concern in Chevron area Metro to tighten sulphur dioxide emission limit Jeff Nagel black Press
Air quality guidelines for sulphur dioxide pollution levels in the Lower Mainland may be too high to adequately protect human health, says a Metro Vancouver report. And Burnaby’s Chevron refinery makes this city among the most affected, and they could increase in the future if oil shipments expand through Westridge Terminal. The regional district, which
regulates air quality within Metro dioxide are outdated as they and the Fraser Valley, is proposing were based on national targets to slash the maximum acceptable drawn up in the 1970s and “may level of the pollutant from 174 parts not be protective for all sensitive per billion (ppb) individuals, to the same 75 ppb particularly limit adopted in the asthmatics.” ray robb, metro Vancouver U.S. in 2010. The pollutant we are concerned about Exposure to high sulphur dioxide levels around also acidifies soil levels of sulphur and surface water, Chevron. dioxide – most damages crops and of which comes from shipping – trees and can damage or discolour can aggravate asthma and other structures and property. It can react respiratory problems. with other substances to make smog. The report says Metro’s existing Nearly 80 per cent of sulphur maximum targets for sulphur dioxide emissions in the region
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came from the marine ships in 2010, followed by eight per cent from the Chevron oil refinery in Burnaby and three per cent from cement plants. The current limit of 174 ppb averaged over one hour was exceeded twice last year in Burnaby’s Capitol Hill neighbourhood, which has the closest air quality monitoring station to the Chevron refinery. If the lower 75 ppb limit had been in place there would have been 17 exceedances in 2013 – 15 at Capitol Hill and two in Port Moody. Please see LINk TO reSPIrATOry, A4
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The long-awaited upgrades to Metrotown SkyTrain Station will get underway in the next few months, but that’s when its lone elevator will close—for about a year. For people needing elevator access, TransLink will operate a shuttle bus between Metrotown and Patterson stations, the latter being the next closest station with a lift. Metrotown-area resident Craig Langston, who has cerebral palsy and uses a motorized wheelchair, expressed concern over how the change could lengthen people’s transit trips. He questioned how frequently the shuttles will run and how many wheelchairs they’ll be able to accommodate, noting most shuttle vehicles can only hold about two wheelchairs. “If it’s 15 to 20 minutes [waits], that could be hard on people, especially with the temperatures we’ve been having this past week, for example,” said Langston, 47, a former president of the Cerebral Palsy Association of B.C. see reNOVATeD, A3