The unlicensed pumping of water from the North Alouette River is drawing in federal and provincial politicians who want investigation and enforcement if there have been any violation of federal or provincial laws.

“If there’s contravention, then definitely it needs to be examined,” said Marc Dalton, Liberal MLA for Maple Ridge-Mission.

“These are issues of concern and we’ll proceed to examine those.”

Dalton said Environment Minister Barry Penner is to be in Pitt Meadows at Golden Eagle Golf Club – operated by the Golden Eagle Group – today for a golf tournament. Dalton said he’d raise the issue with him then.

Golden Eagle Group, part of the Aquilini Investment Group, which also owns the Vancouver Canucks, admitted Monday that it pumped water from the North Alouette River, about 100,000 litres, before it received its new water licences because 200 acres of cranberry bushes were at risk from the dry spring.

The company wants to more than double the water it takes from the river, to more than 2,500 acre/feet a year, for its cranberry and blueberry fields. An acre/foot is the water needed to cover an acre to a depth of 30 centimetres, or a foot.

MP Randy Kamp also met Wednesday with the regional director to discuss Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s involvement.

Kamp is parliamentary secretary to Fisheries Minister Gail Shea.

“Right from the start, I have been troubled by this situation. I can tell you, I’m going to make sure these allegations are taken seriously by the government departments that are involved, including DFO.

“If there’s enforcement action to be taken, it will be.”

He pointed out, though, that the Fisheries Act doesn’t require a permit or licence if work takes place in or near a stream, if those doing so believe they won’t harm fish habitat.

But if a company or individual knows that fish habitat will be harmed, authorization is needed so that mitigation takes place.

Fisheries and Oceans biologist Bruce Clark visited the location Wednesday to see if an investigation under the Fisheries Act is warranted.

He said Environment Canada, which visited following reports of thousands of dead fish May 25, and the provincial Ministry of Environment, which issues water licences, so far have been the lead organizations.

“We’re going to have a serious look at it and see what we can ascertain from what we see on the ground.”

He said if it’s determined that fish habitat has been harmed, an investigation will start.

Clark said under the Fisheries Act, an agreement allows Environment Canada to investigate pollution issues, while Fisheries focuses on sediment and silt getting into water and harming fish.

He pointed out that any Environment Canada enforcement officer can inspect sites close to the river as possible pollution or contaminant sources.

Concerns about the installation of the new pump and increased withdrawals of water from the river coincided with a complaint by Jack Emberly of thousands of dead fish on May 25. Environment Canada is currently reviewing its results from an inspection on the fish kill.

Golden Eagle however says its pump didn’t go into the river until June 4, after the fish died. Rick Matis said no work occurred on the river, on the north side of the dike, until June 4, when the pump was installed.

“Everything happened that same day.”

He said preliminary results of the testing of the dead fish show chemicals or pollution were not the cause.

However, The News ran a photo taken June 1 of the pipe already in the river.

Margaret Cowan, a regular walker on the dike, reported to the City of Pitt Meadows about excavation work she had seen on the river bank in the same location on May 21.

“What we saw so clearly was some machine had gone across the dikes and they had dumped clay on the banks.”

Peter Grohme saw the work being done along the river on May 19 and called Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Grohme didn’t actually see the equipment working, just saw it on site. One backhoe had an unusually long arm, he noted.

He said one channel in the North Alouette actually was blocked off in an attempt to deepen the channel of another. “That was kind of peculiar to me.”

The excavation was required in the stream bed in order to install the pump, said Geoff Clayton, with the Alouette River Management Society.

Clayton, a former electrical technician in thermal power plants, said the electrical work for the pump with “a control box stuck in the mud and strapped to a wood post,” is unsafe.

So far, the Water Stewardship Division won’t comment on its next action, even after Golden Eagle’s admission of pumping water without a licence.

“Water Stewardship Division staff are following due process.

“Water Stewardship Division will communicate results of the investigation when it is possible to do so,” regional manager Julia Berardinucci said Wednesday.

Matis said after a meeting with Ministry of Environment officials Wednesday that no more water will be drawn from the river until it’s received its new water licences.

However, more engineering studies have to be done before that happens, he said.

Without the water, and if a hot spell strikes, the company could lose the 200 acres of cranberry bushes, about a $5-million loss. “Heat is going to kill us.”

The plants are in the juvenile stage, two to three years old, with vulnerable root systems.

Matis said if the company can’t draw from the North Alouette, it could pump from the acquifer.

One part of the water pipe project is the permission of the City of Pitt Meadows to access the dike.

That was given on a conditional basis – that Golden Eagle receive its B.C. water licences said Kim Grout, director of operations and development services.

Clayton is encouraging members of the public to bring a camera and binoculars any time they walk along the North Alouette.

If they spot any any environmental infractions, they can contact the society, which will then post them on a blog.

“We’re all going to become inspectors because our federal and provincial governments are failing us.”

Emberly asked if both federal and provincial governments shouldn’t be doing a better job protecting rivers.

“It’s a conspiracy of inertia to protect agriculture.”

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