VANCOUVER

Permit to sink Navy vessel off B.C. coast questioned in Federal Court

The Canadian Press Published Wednesday, February 25, 2015 2:24PM PST Last Updated Wednesday, February 25, 2015 2:25PM PST

HMCS Annapolis, a retired five-decade-old destroyer escort vessel stripped of its weapons, rests at Howe Sound north of Vancouver in 2010. (Supplied Photo / Barb Roy / The Canadian Press)

Text:

VANCOUVER - A lawyer for a group opposed to the sinking of a former warship off the coast of B.C. says Environment Canada did not adequately consider whether the vessel contained toxic chemicals.

Martin Peters represents the Save Halkett Bay Marine Park Society, which is fighting in Federal Court to quash a permit that Environment Canada issued to the Artificial Reef Society of B.C., allowing it to sink the ship.

The reef society hopes to tow the 1960s vessel from its current location at Long Bay to Halkett Bay Marine Park on Gambier Island, where it would be sunk to create an artificial reef for divers and marine life.

But the Save Halkett group says independent testing of paint on the HMCS Annapolis after the permit was issued found highly toxic compounds that can't be disposed in the ocean.

Peters has argued that Environment Canada's testing of the compounds was inconclusive and that it asked the reef society to clean the vessel of hazardous materials before sinking it.

Lawyers for the society and the environment minister are set to present their arguments, but the reef society has said it followed orders to meticulously clean the ship.