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Dedicating a half century to reducing greenhouse gas emissions

By Coun. Harold Steves

Published 1:02 PDT, Fri March 19, 2021

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When I was young, I was intrigued by a story about my grandfather Joseph Steves noticing bubbles rising through a pond of water as he walked from his house to the barn over 100 years ago. Surmising that the bubbles were probably natural gas, he inverted a 45 gallon drum over the top, punched a hole in the bottom with a nail and lit a match. Using a lamp chimney from a kerosene lamp, my grandfather now had a light by the walkway at night. The flammable gas was “swamp gas” from rotting vegetation and roots that had been covered by water and silt from the Fraser River over the centuries. It is the basic principle of what we today call Anaerobic Digestion, a process where microorganisms break down and produce biogas which is combusted to generate electricity and heat, or processed into renewable natural gas and transportation fuels.

I have always been interested in developing energy alternatives to dams, fossil fuels and nuclear power. In the early 1970’s we successfully stopped the construction of the Moran Dam on the Fraser River that would have decimated the fishing industry. We also thought we had stopped the Site C Dam on the Peace River.

When elected as provincial NDP MLA in 1972, I was instrumental in having the government hold a week long Alternate Energy Show during the PNE Fair. Scientists and inventors from across North America demonstrated the latest in solar, wind, geothermal and tidal power, and how to produce methane from manure and plant waste. All BC Hydro knew at the time was how to build dams. It was still promoting the Hat Creek coalfields and had to be told to participate in this new way of thinking.

In 2008 Metro Vancouver adopted a regional target of an 80 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In 2009 Richmond banned the use of herbicides and pesticides in residential Richmond, resulting in the production of fertilizer from leaves and lawn clippings safe enough for organic gardens after it went through an Anaerobic Digester. Then Richmond developed its own geothermal district energy for downtown apartments using heat from the ground along trails and in parks and heat from sewers.

Now Metro Vancouver is embracing these ideas. It has published seven discussion papers. Zero emission vehicles, increased transit, anaerobic digestion of agricultural and sewage waste, local food production, agriculture that sequesters carbon, zero emissions buildings, electric heat pumps, zero carbon district energy systems are just a few ideas to be adopted. Under discussion are roadmaps for clean air that include buildings, industry, transportation, nature and ecosystems, agriculture and waste, plus infrastructure, human health, alternate energy and growth management that strengthens the Urban Containment Boundary and protects agriculture and natural carbon sinks.

It has taken 49 years to get here, and we have no time to lose.