A mysterious chemical spill in Burrard Inlet near Deep Cove has response agencies scratching their heads.
Residents first called District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue to report a petrochemical smell in the area Sunday night.
Fire and Rescue members searched the area
and confirmed there was a "hydrocarbon" smell coming from the water and called in Port Metro Vancouver, which investigates pollution in the harbour. PMV began their investigation Monday morning but no obvious water-based source turned up throughout the day.
"Our boat crew was out there. They had been there pretty much the whole day,
driving the shoreline. They definitely saw it, some sheen there. The smell was kind of light and they'd get kind of a waft of it periodically," said Graeme Bergh, PMV's operations co-ordinator Crews checked with the local marina, yacht club, business owners and residents and looked into the possibility that an illegally anchored vessel had sunk but no one noticed anything out of the ordinary.
"Everything appeared to be normal. It's a strange one, to be honest. Our boat crew believed it was probably something that came from land. There's some outflow there and a creek on the south side of the cove. Something may have been put in the creek," Bergh said. "But we couldn't find the source.. .. so at this time, it's been determined, whether it's diesel or gasoline or some sort of mixed chemical, it's unrecoverable so there's nothing we could do in terms of cleanup. It will just naturally get dissipated away with the tides and the currents," Bergh said.
District environmental technicians scoured the area above the high water mark looking for a possible spill,
including at a residential construction site, but also haven't had any luck confirming the source.
"They did the whole shorelines (Monday) and all the storm sewers and all the creek beds and couldn't find any indication that there had been any kind of a spill so now they're looking upland to see if there's something coming down from higher up," said Mairi Welman, district spokeswoman.
On Tuesday afternoon, the diluted sheen centred around two spots near Parkside Lane and Strathcona Road, PMV spokesman John Parker-Jervis said.
"The source of the pollution remains unconfirmed but it appears to have predominantly dissipated. They said there are two light sheens still visible on those two locations but those are at natural basins of creek outflow so speculation is an upland source," Parker-Jervis said.
Spills like this are sadly common around Vancouver, Berghe said.
Environment Canada has sent enforcement officers to the scene to monitor the investigation and determine if charges will be necessary.
