The Editor,
Re. "Good results - and caution - in limited Coquitlam River tests" (The Tri-City News, March 6).
I hope the local politicians and certain members of the aggregate group - namely Allard and Cewe - didn't hurt themselves too much patting each other on the back.
Certainly credit should be given where credit is due - unfortunately too long overdue.
Testing of the Coquitlam River water is a step in the right direction, with the aggregate companies having made significant improvement in controlling the sediment coming from their pits after decades of being one of the major polluters of this beautiful urban river.
My cynicism would suggest that recent improvements were more the result of governmental pressures in the way of substantial fines than the thought of becoming born-again environmentalists.
It was suggested by someone that the water testing findings fly in the face of consistent annual reports from the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC, which has frequently listed the Coquitlam River on its top 10 most endangered rivers in B.C.
I'm not sure who the spin-doctor was in this case to imply that the condition of this river has been grossly exaggerated or the figment of someone's imagination in order to downplay the significant neglect over the past 30 years based on one very limited city study. One just has to take a walk along the river to see what years of siltation and lack of attention by the two cities bordering the river has done, with the narrowing of the channel, overgrowth of cottonwood trees and gradual destruction of the riparian area on either side of the river.
If there is to be any credit given for the general improvement of the river over the last four to five years, it should be given to BC Hydro for doing a much better job in controlling the level of the river throughout the year and to volunteers such as Ian McArthur, who have painstakingly given up thousands of hours of their time walking, cleaning up and reporting on the condition of the river for several years.
In summary, the Coquitlam River is a natural recreation resource that few urban centres are fortunate to have. When we can no longer afford expensive indoor recreation facilities due to the continual mismanagement of our taxpayer dollars, we'll regret that we didn't make a better effort to preserve the entire Coquitlam River watershed for the many potential recreation activities that so many of us growing up in the area previously enjoyed.
Murray Clare, Coquitlam
