The investigation into the pumping of water from the North Alouette River is drawing to a close as the conservation officer service prepares a report to Crown counsel in the next few weeks.

Two staff from the Ministry of Environment’s conservation officer service have been investigating a 45-centimetre-wide pipe installed into the North Alouette River last June.

Golden Eagle Group admitted it put in the pipe to water 200 acres of new cranberry bushes, without receiving a water licence from Ministry of Environment.

The investigation started in June and the report should go to the Attorney General department in a few weeks, conservation field supervisor Steve Jacobi said Monday.

That report will contain evidence that could lead to charges under B.C.’s Water Act or the federal Fisheries Act. But it is up to the Attorney General ministry to authorize legal action by the Ministry of Environment. That process could take another few months.

“We don’t submit Crown reports unless we think there’s enough evidence,” said Jacobi.

Maple Ridge resident Jack Emberly, who found several hundred dead fish in the North Alouette prior to the pipe installation, wants to know if there has been any connection made between the pipe and the dead fish. He said there’s been no information released on that.

It was agreed that the B.C. Ministry of Environment would be the lead organization, although it’s a co-operative investigative effort, said Bruce Clark, with Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

“It will be their report to their legal advisers.”

Reports of the fish kill in the North Alouette, the installation of the pipe and disturbance to the river bank are all part of that one investigation, he added.

After months of pressuring the government, Emberly said it sometimes feels like he’s getting somewhere, comparing his efforts to a roller-coaster ride, most of it uphill.

“The public needs to be informed and has a right to be informed about investigations of this type. It should not be something that happens behind closed doors if the government wants to maintain the trust of the people it’s working for.”

Rick Matis, with Golden Eagle Group, hadn’t heard of the report’s completion.

“I haven’t heard anything from the fisheries department. They’re supposed to call us when they’re ready to make a decision.

“You’ve got more information than I do. I don’t think the investigation is finished.”

If the water licences are later denied, the City of Pitt Meadows can order the removal of the pipe.

The company could then use well water for irrigation or even Metro Vancouver water for the two crucial times for cranberry crops – during harvest and to protect against frost in the spring.

He said it’s too soon to say how the new bushes will do next year. He said last June that the bushes were in danger of dying if they didn’t get the water from the pipe.

Geoff Clayton, with the Alouette River Management Society, said his group congratulates both levels of government “for taking this seriously and moving forward on it.

“The wheels of justice turn slowly.”

Golden Eagle Group, part of the Aquilini Investment Group – which owns the Vancouver Canucks – wants to more than double the amount of water it pumps from the North Alouette for its blueberry and cranberry operations from a current 977 acre/feet per year to 1,536 acre/feet. An acre/foot is the amount of water needed to cover an acre to a depth of a foot, or 30 centimetres.

The company sought to do that when it applied for a dozen licences in 2007.

ARMS and Alouette Valley Association want real-time monitoring of the water that’s being pumped out of the North Alouette River and a moratorium on further water licences issued until such a system is in place.

Of the current 1,127 acre/feet per year licenced for withdrawal from the North Alouette, Golden Eagle Group is licenced for 86 per cent of the licenced withdrawals.