Hopes to rid the coastline of an abandoned boat may have run aground for the West Howe Sound Community Association. That’s a shame, considering that the WHSCA has excelled in other cleanup tasks.
Transport Canada’s Abandoned Boats Program offers grants to organizations for the removal of small, derelict boats. But applicants must pay 25 per cent of the cost.
That requirement is daunting, WHSCA president Maura Laverty said at the association’s most recent directors meeting.
She had planned to apply for a grant for the WHSCA to remove a boat from the beach near Granthams Landing. Her first step would have been to request a sign-off from the Squamish Nation because the boat is on Checkwelp land, she said.
The WHSCA has less than $300 in its kitty, which mostly comes from $10 membership fees. Boat removal can cost upward of thousands, Laverty said, so 25 per cent would be too much.
Ian Winn, Sunshine Coast Regional District director for Area F, said at the meeting that he had received an email from Randall Lewis, environmental officer for the Squamish Nation, saying the band would support any effort to remove damaged vessel.
“Everybody wants someone else to do it,” Winn said.
That’s understandable, considering the risks involved.
I walked on to Granthams wharf this week and could see the blue sailboat, stuck between rocks. Granthams residents are worried that a king tide could dislodge it and smash it into the dock, Winn said.
That could cause a toxic spill. A cleanup at the beached location could cause a spill, too, and huge problems were the WHSCA to do it.
Community associations typically enlist volunteers for efforts such as boat removal, Laverty said. “There’s battery acid, there’s oil, there’s gasoline in there. There could be needles for all we know. If someone gets hurt, who assumes the liability?”
There were no instructions from Transport Canada on the issue in a “whole kit and caboodle” of grant application forms and directions MP Pamela Goldsmith-Jones’ office sent Laverty in December, Laverty said. She has yet to fill out the forms.
Winn has written to Goldsmith-Jones, raising Laverty’s concerns. He hadn’t heard back before my deadline, and neither had I after leaving a message with the MP’s office.
Although boat cleanup may have to wait, the WHSCA remains involved in its composting program, which has generated buckets of organic soil.
In another cleanup effort, last year volunteers from the association participated in the most successful SCRD Backroad Trash Bash ever. The September event, which collected 52 truckloads of trash from Areas E and F, will move to Pender Harbour this year.
Directors at the Jan. 16 meeting discussed the idea of the association organizing its own trash bash and combining it with a flea market.
Paid-up WHSCA members are invited to a meeting at Eric Cardinall Hall at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 7 to brainstorm ideas for the event. Memberships will be available there to residents of West Howe Sound.
The session takes the place of a general meeting and talk from MLA Nicholas Simons, which has been moved to March 21.
That’s all for now. If you have news of West Howe Sound you’d like to share in this column, please email me at [email protected].
