By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: May 9, 2019
A local citizen is calling upon the district to ensure that a salmon-bearing waterway in Dentville remains clean and garbage free.
Marina Tourlakis moved to Dentville four years ago and immediately noticed how Wilson Slough was being treated as a garbage dump.
“I hope the district will advocate on our behalf and take action to keep this waterway clean.”
“We’ve understood that there is a longstanding tradition for garbage to accumulate in this waterway, which according to signage off of Buckley is an important fish habitat, connecting to the blind channel and estuary.
Tourlakis said she and her husband have cruised around the slough on their canoe and were shocked to see how much trash was dumped along the banks and in the slough.
Tourlakis recently sent Squamish council photos of the gross abuse of the waterway.
Grocery carts, an old TV and discarded children’s toys are just some of the things she and her partner have seen on the banks or in the slough.
“It is typical to see small bits of trash on the banks year round and more often than not, grocery carts. My partner has pulled out over a *dozen* grocery carts from the slough since moving here. It’s bad,” she said.
This is apparently an improvement on the past.
A neighbour told her there was a mattress floating in the slough for a long time before they moved here.
Tourlakis says there are two factors at play here. One, there is a dumpster right at the edge of the bank to the waterway which makes it very easy for trash to enter the slough.
And then there are people who throw garbage and grocery carts into the slough on purpose.
She says the district should have bylaws stipulating set backs and containment, fencing for example, for garbage dumpsters near waterways.
“It is typical to see small bits of trash on the banks year round and more often than not, grocery carts. My partner has pulled out over a *dozen* grocery carts from the slough since moving here.”
If such a bylaw does exists, they should enforce it by issuing fines and providing education, she added.
The district should also liaise directly with the managers and owners of properties that back onto the slough to ensure they are aware of the problem and the consequences for the pollution.
“I would also like the district to speak with the owners and managers of local grocery stores to ask them to step up and help deal with the grocery carts that litter the streets and waterways of downtown,” she said.
“I hope the district will advocate on our behalf and take action to keep this waterway clean,” she says.
She is also urging her fellow citizens to not dump garbage anywhere other than in dumpsters and depots and to clean up trash when they see it.
