Beaches polluted in the recent oil spill remained closed in West Vancouver Monday and Tuesday, despite beaches across Burrard Inlet being reopened.
Jeff McDonald, spokesman for the District of West Vancouver, said the municipality is waiting for word from Vancouver Coastal Health before reopening popular beaches at Ambleside and Dundarave.
Mark Lysyshyn, medical health officer for the North Shore, said authorities have been examining sediment samples for levels of PAH hydrocarbons as well as relying on visual inspections.
With the past weekend’s balmy temperatures, not everyone heeded warnings to stay off the beaches.
“It was a beautiful weekend with beautiful weather,” said McDonald. “We’ve done as much as we can to let people know the risks of coming into contact with oil.”
Lysyshyn said in most cases, sandy areas aren’t as much of a concern as rocky areas of the beaches.
Cleanup of the oil continued Monday at Erwin Park and John Lawson beaches and McDonald Creek estuary. Cleanup assessment crews were also doing another pass along the West Vancouver shoreline beginning Tuesday.
McDonald said the municipality has insisted no beach gets signed off as clean of oil until district staff agrees to that.
Chief Ian Campbell of the Squamish Nation issued a call on the weekend to make informing of his First Nation one of the top priorities in the wake of any future oil spills.
Campbell criticized the federal government for “vacating the field in environmental protection,” pointing to watering down of environmental assessment requirements and the closure of the Kitsilano Coast Guard base. “We really have to question the legitimacy of the federal government saying they have world-class standards,” he said.
On Monday, debate about the oil spill continued in the House of Commons, with NDP MP Finn Donnelly demanding that Ottawa reopen the shuttered Kitsilano Coast Guard base.
Donnelly said if the base had been open, it would have provided a quick response and had equipment on hand that could have prevented the spill from spreading. That echoed comments made by former Kitsilano base commander and North Vancouver resident Fred Moxey last week.
But Randy Kemp, parliamentary secretary to the fisheries minister, called it “plain nonsense” the Kitsilano station would have improved the response.
West Vancouver MP John Weston also weighed in, saying the Kitsilano station was “not equipped to conduct an operation of the magnitude required during this incident.”
Weston added the incident showed “we do have a world-class system in place.” Weston said “world-class” doesn’t mean perfect. “In fact, a world-class process means a commitment to reviewing what happens after an incident like this and a commitment to make it better.”
