Orange sludge redux

-Monday Magazine
The mysterious orange sludge seeping out from a rock-rubble wall below the 19th hole of Bear Mountain’s golf course is again oozing its way down a narrow canyon on the hill, staining rocks and killing plant life along the way.

Locals familiar with the site are still without explanation as to the nature of the sludge—given the disinterest from government or the environmental consulting firm whose flagging tape designates it a “riparian management zone” to study its contents. One possible—and plausible—explanation, given that water mixed with the ooze turns moss black and eventually strips it from the surfaces where it grows, is that herbicides used by the golf course grounds crew to control moss growth pours into the loose rock wall and spills out the bottom during the rainy season. Moss killer typically contains iron sulphate or iron phosphate, which would explain the orange colouration. Oil can also be seen in areas where the stream pools.

Locals maintain the polluted stream did not actually exist until Bear Mountain’s developers filled in a natural basin with blast rock. The subsequently-created stream now flows into what was once a pristine spring-fed creek.

“We used to drink straight from the creek,” says former Langford resident Trisha Glatthaar.

Of course, concerns about the health of streams and other watercourses on the mountain may soon be rendered moot as plans were unveiled last week that could see up to 2,819 residential units constructed on the 84-hectare slope of south Skirt Mountain over the next 20 years.

Selling sustainability

West Shore residents were introduced to plans for the aforementioned South Skirt Mountain Neighbourhood at a January 21 open house in the conference room of Moe Sihota’s Sheraton Hotel. There, the community learned the development is being pitched by three owners operating under the monikers Skirt Mountain Village Ltd., Bear Mountain Parkway Estates Ltd. and Totangi Properties Ltd.

The principals for each of the respective development groups are Ron Coutre and Russ Trace, Ellen Gallacher, and Blair and Warren Robertson.

Some members of the development team have already greased the necessary wheels to win government favour for their plans. In the 2005 municipal election, Trace’s Capital City Paving donated $500 to the campaigns of each of the winning councillors. 2008 campaign disclosure forms are not yet available. Between 2005 and 2007, Trace also donated $3,100 to the BC Liberal party, which has backed the development of Bear Mountain since its inception. Coutre is also firmly behind Langford’s current evolution, having donated $100,000 toward the construction of a new city park at Hull’s Field.

The Tartan Group PR firm has been retained by the developers to explain, with Orwellian panache, how levelling the steep slopes and ridges with explosives, felling Garry oak trees and redirecting natural waterways will “create a sustainable community at all levels of development.”