Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum

Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: Lew Chater on October 15, 2005, 01:37:21 PM

Title: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: Lew Chater on October 15, 2005, 01:37:21 PM

Had a call this week from a river user about a messy site about a half mile above the Vedder Crossing Bridge just above Teskey Rock. Marvin Senft asked if some members of the Chwk Vedder River Cleanup Coalition would be interested in giving him and a few friends a hand to clean up this site. He had a truck and a bin from Chwk Roofing, so Terry and I agreed to meet them on the river at 7:30 this morning.

When we went into this site, I couldn't believe it. We have cleaned up some pretty messy sites but this one topped them all. We had to build a plank walkway across a side stream to get the wheelbarrows across that were needed for this site.

We have 10 guys who worked hard from 7:30 to 11:00 am to get this cleaned out. There were at least 3 different sites with one main site with tarps covering about 9 old tents. There were sleeping bags, clothes, shoes, boots, chairs, tables etc. We removed piles of plactic that the wire had been stripped out. There were at least parts of 20 bicycles, 12 volt batteries, small and large propane tanks, power tools, parts of radios, tape players etc.

We found old needles and an almost full box of new needles, so cleaning these sites involves some risk to the volunteeers. I haven't described everything as it was almost beyond belief.

This area is within the Chwk City limits and there are by-laws that can be used to prevent this type of mess. I phoned Chris and got him out of bed, to come and take video of this. Chris then got the Chwk Progress to come out and take a look and take some pictures. We also had a director from the FVRD have a look, and the RCMP were notified again.

We will be working with the City of Chwk on Monday morning to get the stuff hauled away. It is going to take a lot of effort to haul this amount of garbage up the rip-rap bank and it is heavy as everything is soaking wet. We hope that on seeing this mess, the by-law will be enforced quickly next time so this doesn't have to happen to this degree again.

I will post several pictures of before, after, and the pile of garbage cleaned out.
A huge thanks to Marvin and his buddies who initiated this cleanup and worked so hard to remove this eyesore from the riparian area of this great river.

(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/6117/img4537113or.jpg)

(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/1089/img4542216ei.jpg)

(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/276/img4544318nv.jpg)

(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3147/img4548413wt.jpg)

(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/6571/img4558513ra.jpg)

(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/2224/img4559616fx.jpg)

(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/2849/img4567716yd.jpg)

(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/1079/img4572817gf.jpg)

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: bigguy on October 15, 2005, 02:02:26 PM

that is incredible!  Where did the owners go?? In jail??  There was a spot much like this one on Keith Wilson road right down by the river but covered by the trees.  Not sure if it is still being used!

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: copperspoon on October 15, 2005, 02:08:10 PM

Thanks to all the volunteers for the effort-a job well done.
As to owner well there is no owner just a bunch of junkie vermin camping out stealing shooting up smoking crack and collecting welfare.
Believe it people these are the same crackheads that are constantly breaking into people's cars.

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: chris gadsden on October 15, 2005, 02:50:13 PM

Thanks to all that turned out to cleanup this terrible mess and to Marvin that got a group together with Lew, Terry and Buckeye from the CVRCC also pitching in. 2:40 who was working today got out to take some more photo to pass on to the FVRD.

Also Frank Sobkwich Area E Director of the Chilliwack Valley who took the time to come down to inspect this even though it is outside his area. He contacted the RCMP and they are going down as I type this to check it out as there is stuff there that has been stolen. As Copperspoon said these individuals that stayed here would be those that would have most likely been doing some of the breakins to fishers cars.

I just converted my VHS video to DVD and Buckeye is working on trying to convert it to a format to show here.

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: mr.pink on October 15, 2005, 03:05:28 PM

 nice work guys.what freakin' mess,cheers.

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: BigFisher on October 15, 2005, 04:15:06 PM

Haha thats where i was fishing and saw the boat yesterday.

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: bigguy on October 15, 2005, 08:43:38 PM

It is Wilson road, is that tarp etc. still there from last year? :-\

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: Buckeye on October 15, 2005, 10:10:52 PM

A big thanx to all who were able to help out today.
If it were not for a few dedicated fishermen who are not scared to get their hands dirty, this stuff would have been washed away with the next high water.  :-[
I have cut out and compressed a portion of the video Chris gave me. I managed to get 8 minutes of video down to about 14 megabytes. This is still quite a large file, suitable only for broadband users.

The video can be downloaded here:
http://members.shaw.ca/Pimmetje/Illegal camp cleanup Teskey Rock Oct 15 05.avi

To play this file you will need to have the XViD codec installed on your computer. This is the best codec quality wise, but it does not come with windows as it competes with microsofts own codec.

You can download the codec here:
http://members.shaw.ca/Pimmetje/XviD-1.0-RC2-07022004.exe

I will leave the video online for a few days only, otherwise I will likely get a nasty email from my service provider regarding bandwidth usage.

Enjoy...
George


**EDIT**

I have made the video smaller, down to 5.48 MB. It runs 3 minutes 21 seconds now.
Now you don't have to watch Lew's mug while listening to him ramble on... ;)

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: halorail on October 16, 2005, 08:16:16 AM

Great Job Guys

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: chris gadsden on October 16, 2005, 09:23:51 AM

Thanks Buckeye very much for putting the video clip together.

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: casinoJim on October 16, 2005, 11:06:18 AM

Wow ! What a mess.

I have a question...

What training or precautions are used to prevent needle sticking and therefore possible Hepatitis/AIDS/HIV infection in this kind of situation?

CJ

PS. Needles don't allways mean junkies... I am a diabetic and use those... and although I doubt it,this could be a homeless diabetic.

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: pontooner on October 17, 2005, 12:50:40 AM

Great job guys :) but why were by-law/police not there to fine/charge the individual that was there ??? ::)

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: Terry Bodman on October 17, 2005, 08:39:37 AM

Casino Jim asks a good question. The Directors of the CVRCC are always conscious of the issue of safety and chat with our volunteers during our four formal cleanups during the year. We have a "don't touch" when it comes to dangerous materials. Having said that we had only experienced people on this one and it still made us very nervous. Needles were numerous and while we were wearing heavy gloves there was always the thought of a needle penetrating our wader boots...not likely but certainly possible. The mess we encountered on Saturday tells me two things:

1. It is important that by-laws be enforced so that these "camps" do not become permanent. It is also important that RCMP be notified when it is obvious laws are being broken. i.e. illegal drugs. stolen property.
2. The CVRCC needs to be even more specific to our volunteers prior to cleanup  activities.

Thanks for raising the question.

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: Nostro on October 17, 2005, 10:43:39 AM

I just watched the video. That is incredible! Thanks guys for taking time from your week-end to do all that the City should have been doing.
It does raise a lot of questions and concerns and hopefully various levels of government will follow up:
- By-Law enforcement: this was a small community, living in temporary shelters, all within City limits
- Health and Safety to the general public: needles, garbage, human waste
- RCMP: site should have have been left undisturbed in case the RCMP may have viewed it as a crime scene
- Social: obviously this was home to a lot of people for a long time; all within City limits. This is a sad statement because these residents would probably rather live in more suitable accommodations than these
- Environment: to have this garbage and squalor exist on the very precious floodplain of a sensitive river is very concerning

Thanks to all.

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: BigFisher on October 17, 2005, 11:25:30 AM

So what happened with the people living there? When I was there las friday there were still 3 people living there.

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: Bushwacker on October 17, 2005, 11:49:37 AM

Nostro raised some of the important issues that were not addressed by the various authorities in taking appropriate action to eradicate this annual problem. I live in Chilliwack and have seen this ongoing cesspool of river rats thrashing our lovely environment with no regard to the garbage they leave behind.

This is a social problem that has an enormous impact on the community and our liveability standards.Much thanks to the CVRCC folks for the wonderful work they are doing and in bringing such issues to the forefront and in putting more pressure on City leaders to get off their duffs and taking more pro-active action.

Good work, guys !   

P.S. The City's groundwater aquifer system is located  just a short distance downriver from this polluted campsite. City leaders should take this hint to ban further camping (except supervised areas) alongside the river or at the very least make frequent inspections to make sure our drinking water won't be compromised.

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: Coho Cody on October 17, 2005, 12:10:56 PM

yeah i'd like to know what happened to the people living there :o ::).  GREAT JOB GUYS!!! 8) ;D ;D

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: BwiBwi on October 17, 2005, 12:20:32 PM

On Sat during our scouting for fishing spot came across a pile of roof shingles and other debris. Picked up a bag of the roof shingle, 1 mower and half of a a axle (damn heavy). If anyone passing by can pick up a bag of those shingles it would be gone soon. The turn off is not far from a turn off spot where a yellow 2 flag is.

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: dennyman on October 17, 2005, 01:12:17 PM

Hats off to the people that cleaned this illegal camping site from off the river bank. Luckily no one was injured during the cleanup as when you are dealing with filthy and hazardous conditions such as this the potential for a " needle stick" is always there.
And hopefully, this will be a wakeup call to both the police and the local government officials of Chilliwack. With regards to the police, if they now suspect thieves were using this site as a hiding spot, why the heck did they not raid this site months ago, and charge the culprits?  And to City officials there is a homeless problem in Chilliwack, and at the very least serious consideration has to be given to set up some shelters for folks like this, instead of having them camp down the river and live like animals.  As far as where some of these people went  to, my guess is to look under the Vedder Bridge....

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: Lew Chater on October 17, 2005, 05:20:50 PM

Just a follow up! The Vedder is coming up fast, with water brown and bank to bank. We have had a lot of rain out here today and it hasn't stopped yet so the water will continue to rise. The City of Chwk crews were busy with other water problems and were not going to be able to get the garbage out until tomorrow. With the water coming up, they decided to work some overtime and sent a large Cat backhoe and two 14 yard dump trucks to the site. They filled both of the trucks. A big thanks to Heidi our City contact for Environmental issues and the City crews who had other problems to deal with, but got onto this one on quite short notice.

Now we need to have some discussion on enforcing the bylaws to prevent this size of thing from happening again. The CVRCC will be meeting to look at this with City officials. We have good support from both the City and Fraser Valley Regional District on our efforts and the efforts of all the volunteers who help with the cleanups.

Thanks again to Marvin and his buddies who took it upon themselves to do something about this mess and to contact and include members of the CVRCC.

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: chris gadsden on October 17, 2005, 06:33:40 PM

A lot of thanks go to Lew and Terry for giving a good part of their Saturday dealing with this awful assault on our environment. Also let it be known that Lew worked on this file all today and assured this mess was cleaned up before dark this evening.

The plus side is we have got the City's attention on this one and we will be dealing with them and the RCMP at a meeting shortly to make sure things like this do not get to such a point that things like this happen ever again.

This may involve you, the user groups of the river reporting to us when you notice such camps so we can deal with it at our end. Thanks to those that have already told us about a couple including those in the FVRD where no bylaw presently exists to evit illegal camping.

Thanks once again to Lew for all his work today and also to Heidi as well as the crew from the City for their prompt action in dealing with this terrible mess.

WELL DONE ALL.   

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: buck on October 17, 2005, 08:51:35 PM

Chris
     
     While on the subject of camping, I think things are getting out of control around the Tamihi area with all the illegal camping going on along the river. There seems to be this attitude that you can just show up and set up camp where ever you please. The " Curly Fry " set up across the bridge is beginning to look a little shabby and certainly distracts from the fishing experience. Where do these people dispose of their garbage and gray water? The FVRD has to but some teeth into their laws or we will see more of the same thing in the future.
      Good job on the clean-up.

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: chris gadsden on October 17, 2005, 09:49:36 PM

Things were going in this direction with the FVRD and the Province but I just got some info and a document that the Ch-ihl-kway-uhk Tribal Society has got involved on this early this month now so things are stalled at the momement.

One of their 7 suggestions on the memo and a lot of you that read this will like this one, "It was suggested that one solution to the concerns regarding vandalism to the land would be to have a toll booth erected to control access to the Valley which would be run by the First Nations and funded through fee collection." ??? ::)

I will send you the complete document Pete if I have your e-mail addres.

Title: Re: Worst cleanup site the CVRCC has seen to date !
Post by: Rodney on October 18, 2005, 10:17:18 PM

Article in The Progress:

http://www.theprogress.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=39&cat=23&id=512332&more=