Lulu Island sewage lethal to fingerlings
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Richard Morgan photo
• This is the parking lot, three blocks from Fisherman's Hall, where Canfisco foreman Mel Davies was fatally stabbed by an unknown assailant on the night of June 28.
Knifed in parking lot
Canfisco foreman slain
Vancouver police had made no apparent progress at Fisherman press time toward finding the knife-wielding assailant who on June 28 stabbed and killed Canadian Fishing Company home plant foreman Mel Davies — a man described by the women of the plant's filleting room as "well liked and greatly respected."
The stabbing seemed without motive. Davies, 56, and an employee of Canfisco for more than 40 years, walked toward the company's parking lot at the foot of Gore Avenue with two companions after a fellow employee's retirement party at Fishermen's Hall.
There they met the assailant sitting on a rail beside the sloping ramp that leads into the parking lot.
He asked Davies where his car was parked and Davies replied that it was none of his business, homicide chief Jack Finnie told
Seiner hurt on'Freeland'
Thirty-two-year-old Terry Thomas was rushed from the Nass River to Vancouver General Hospital July 8 following an accident aboard the seiner Free-land.
Brother-in-law Bryne Dubeau of Vancouver told The Fisherman that Thomas, union delegate aboard the vessel, suffered a smashed vertebrae. He visited him in hospital July 10 and reported that though Thomas has recovered partial use of both hands from complete bodily paralysis at the time of the accident, it will be six weeks before the full extent of his injuries are known.
Details of the accident are still sketchy, but according to UFAWU welfare director Glenn McEachern, Thomas was apparently caught in the bight of a line and dragged up into a davit. He was brought by helicopter to Prince Rupert and from there an Air Sea Rescue flight carried him to Vancouver.
A fisherman of about a dozen years' experience, Thomas lives in Delta. He is married and the father of two infant sons.
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the press. "Then the guy said 'I'll make it my business,' and he stabbed Davies in the heart."
Davies died within minutes in the arms of companion and close friend Roy Buckberry. Finnie doubted robbery was a motive for the slaying. "He was a nice guy .. . had lots of friends and was well liked."
Posting of rewards totalling $25,000 for capture and conviction of Davies' killer has made the case more notable.
A police spokesman told The Fisherman he believed it is one of the largest rewards ever offered in the city in connection with a slaying.
The Vancouver Police Commission has put up $10,000. Millionaire landlord Alex DiCim-briani has added another $10,000 and a private company wishing to remain anonymous has posted the remaining $5,000.
One suspect was detained July 3 but later released by police, who can say little more than they are seeking a man between 22 and 28 years of age, five feet 10 or 11 inches tall, of medium build, clean shaven and with shoulder length brown, curly hair.
Born in Wales, Mel Davies came to this country as a boy of 10, going to work for Canfisco
when he left school six years later. Although he never became a member of the UFAWU, he won the liking and respect of many fellow workers who were members.
In the late thirties he started in the home plant's smoke house. For a time he operated it as a private venture, afterward becoming foreman there for the company in the late forties. In 1957 he became foreman of the fillet room, the job he held at the time of his death.
Employees there told The Fisherman, in a written statement that: "Mel got along with his fellow workers very well. He also worked well with the union, and he will be missed greatly. We are sure no one can ever replace him in a true way, for Mel was a well liked man and greatly respected."
He was a popular master of ceremonies at retirement celebrations for fellow employees, active in the UFAWU bowling league in the fifties and sixties and adept at organizing picnics and banquets.
He is survived by wife Doreen and a stepson, Larry, of Coquit-lam.
A memorial service was held July 3.
Undiluted sewage that has undergone only primary treatment at the Lulu Island treatment plant is lethal to sockeye fingerling sockeye within 100 to 260 minutes and is probably more toxic to fish than primary sewage in the San Francisco area.
These are among the results of investigations carried out at the Lulu Island plant by International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission scientists D. W. Martens and J. A. Servizi.
Chlorinated sewage was much more toxic than primary sewage, the scientists relate in a recent commission report entitled Acute Toxicity of Municipal Sewage to Fingerling Sockeye Salmon.
"For example, undiluted chlorinated sewage was often lethal in 10 to 20 minutes, compared to 100 to 260 minutes for primary sewage," the report states.
Simultaneous continuous flow 'bioassays' were conducted using primary treated municipal sewage before and after chlorination at three chlorine residual levels to determine if sewage could be adequately disinfected during a one hour period without increasing toxicity to sockeye salmon.
Cadmium and copper concentrations in the Lulu Island primary sewage were often found to be well in excess of levels found to be lethal in fingerling sockeye". The role that effluent from an electroplating plant plays in toxicity was not well defined by the studies since primary sewage toxicity was unaffected by pretreatment at the plating plant, ordered earlier to reduce heavy nietal concentra-
tions in its discharge. Facilities to bring about the reduction became operational only when the studies neared completion.
While public health considerations make chlorination for the purposes of disinfection a necessity in many instances, dechlorination is necessary to reduce toxicity to fish, the scientists found.
Full scale dechlorination is practised at locations in California using sulphur dioxide, and the method is worthy of testing at Lulu Island, they recommended.
"The authors would be remiss if they failed to mention that although dechlorination is expected to eliminate chlorine induced toxicity, only a minor reduction in toxicity of primary effluent would be anticipated. On the other hand, evidence indicated that secondary treatment by activated sludge detoxified sewage. This factor should not be overlooked when planning sewage disposal to waters inhabited by fish."
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THE FISHERMAN — JULY 12, 1974/3