Thursday, May 15, 2008

Fighting over the pee trap

By Dan Hilborn
Published Jan. 17, 2004


Troy Tack has tried being patient. He's tried negotiating, and he's tried being nice.

But five months after moving into what he thought was an exclusive Capital Hill neighbourhood, the young husband and father is at his wit's end in trying to find a way to stop the horrid smell of mixed sewage from entering his home.

"For the past two weeks, ever since Christmas, the smells have been awful," said Tack, whose battle against the odours was first outlined in the Dec. 17, 2003 edition of the Burnaby NOW.

And while the nearby Chevron refinery admits it is at least partially responsible for the smells, Ray Lord, manager of community affairs for the oil refinery, said a solution is on the way and Tack just needs to be a little more patient.

"Where can I start?" Lord asked Thursday morning. "It disappoints us that Mr. Tack has chosen to engage the media on this. We've been going out of our way to communicate with him."

"We've been continuing to proceed, ... however, the cold weather did cause some setbacks for us. A person was away and Mr. Tack was advised of that. We are proceeding to work on a manhole, but that was delayed because of the cold weather. That should now be done in a week or ten days."

But Tack is not convinced. Tack believes Chevron should take full responsibility for the odours and pay for the installation of a 'pee trap' - a small device that could be attached to the sewer line outside his home, similar to a device installed outside a neighbour's house more than 10 years ago.

"They should just put a damn pee trap in here and I'll go away. I can't live like this. It's crazy."

Tack also claims that a refinery engineer told him that the only reason the pee trap was not being installed was because of objections by the City of Burnaby.

Meanwhile, Tack's neighbour Heinz Kallweit, whose has lived on Liberty Place since 1972, said Chevron has done much to reduce the odours over the years, but nothing worked as well as the pee trap that was installed on his sewer line in late 1988. However, Kallweit can't remember who exactly paid for the device and he no longer has the work receipt. In addition, a 15-year-old letter from Chevron to Kallweit acknowledges the "improvements" to the neighbourhood, but makes no actual mention of a sewer line device.

"I only got the pee trap after years of struggle like Troy is going through right now," said Kallweit. "It was only through a combination of threatening letters to our neighbour (Chevron), the city and the mayor that I finally was able to get results.

"I also had the Chevron public relations person come by when the smells were at their worst," Kallweit said.

And despite his criticism of Chevron's past practices, Kallweit believes the company is doing its part to lessen the amount of odour in the neighbourhood.

"Chevron has done a lot to improve their effluent, they really have," he said. "The problem is, they have also increased their production. So the question we have to ask is: Are we net better?"

Lord insists that Chevron is trying to be a good neighbour by seeking a more permanent solution to the odour problem than the simple installation of a single pee trap for one house.

"People should not be smelling sewer smells in their homes if they have a properly functioning sewer system," said the Chevron spokesperson. "We don't recommend a Band-Aid when what we really need is a solution for everyone."

Lord also admitted that one reason for the company's reluctance to install the pee trap is that there is no prior record of complaints about the smells from that address until the firefighter moved into the house five months ago.

"There is a liability concern, and yes there is a precedence," Lore said. "However, there is also a fundamental feeling that the solution is something that needs to be resolved.

"We don't think it's Chevron's responsibility to maintain a private residence's plumbing system," Lord said. "We have suggested that Mr. Tack have his plumbing diagnosed to rule out any party of the system that may not be functioning properly while we fix our deep shaft bio-filter."

Lord admitted there was an increase in smells in recent weeks, but said that was related to the weather. "We had problems with the air supply to the system that was one of the main causes," he said.

And when asked how long it might take before Tack begins to see an improvement in the air quality inside his home, Lord said: "All I can say is this is something we're focused on. Our team has been assigned to this and we're working on the issue as quickly as we can. I don't know what else I can say."

And for his part, Tack admits to losing his cool during a conversation with Lord early this week.

"I basically told him that I'm tired of you guys coming out here and smelling it, yet you do nothing for me," Tack said. "The gloves are off. I'm not stopping. I have two small children and it stinks. Put a pee trap in here, and you can end this.

"This smells all along Penzance, so how can it be a problem with my house?"

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