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economist sunlsuntribune news saturday dec 13 2003 raids could be tied to toronto violence by martin derbyshire staff writer toronto police are investigating if weapons seized in a local gang raid may have been involved in a rash of gunplay in the brimley road and steeles avenue area early thursday morning a live pipe bomb was discovered at a box grove home and two markham men were among 14 arrested in a street gang sweep by toronto police in souths markham and north east scarborough police say the pipe bomb was found at a boxwood crescent home near 14th avenue and 9th line another raid in the mccowan road and 14th avenue area result ed in one arrest york regional police who assisted toronto officers in the markham takedowns said boxwood was closed for several hours early morn ing hours while the device was defused no one was injured toronto police say thursdays raids which included seven loca tions south of steeles avenue came as a result of a drug squad investiga tion into the activities of the 18 buddha street gang which began in the summer of 2003 also found in those 2 am raids were heroin marijuana and ecstasy eight sawedoff shotguns six hand- guns a sawedoff rifle body armour counterfeit cash and stolen property police suspect 18 buddha gang members are hot only responsible for the distribution of drugs throughout the south markham and scarborough area but also selling guns reckless gunplay robbery extortion fraud and counterfeiting v toronto police spokesman sgt jim muscat said a police forensic team is testing the seized weapons to see if gang members have any connection to several recent gun- related incidents near the scarboroughmarkham border on nov 1 a 40yearold toronto man died after being hit by a stray y bullet that ripped into his home jusf jj south of brimley road and steeles avenue on nov 16 a stray bullet narrowly missed a 15yearold boy in 4iis mothers townhouse near mccowan road and steeles in scarborough and on nov 22 a 19- g yearold man was shot and killed- near warden avenue and hwy 40l along with 12 toronto resi dents a 21yearold boxwood i crescent man and a 20yearold baylawn drive resident are now facing various drug and weapons v charges finding a peace of christmas in stouffville staff photosjoerd witteveen mary mandy sandiford holds baby jesus landon smyth as proud papa joseph jeff boadway looks on while mark purcell holds the don key kramer courtesy of lionels pony farm in a rehearsal for the play the missing peace of christmas the play was written by bill and heather thornton and is being performed dec 12 to 14 at springvale baptist church at stouffville and kennedy roads starting at 7 pm admission is free and a nursery is available water to be heated cleaned in drainage plan bymikeadler staff writer to keep its latest sewer project in markham from draining rouge river streams york region is willing to continuously pipe thousands of litres of extracted groundwater north of the construction zone it would heat the water clean it and put it back in the river as part of an elaborate plan to satisfy provin cial and federal agencies worried a threeyear completion of the 16th avenue sewer will harm fish or cause other damage in the rouge the region still working onsome details hopes to give the plan next week to the agencies which have withheld permits it needs to extract the water the 16th avenue trunk cru- cialfprva planned doubling of capacity in the yorkdurham sewier system or big pipe is now a year behind schedule on top of that dealing with environmental concerns and residents com plaints has boosted its cost from 50 rhillion to 60 million said j3ala araniyasundaran the regions manager of engineering water arid wastewater groundwater down to the sewer as deep as 150 feet under the road from stone mason drive to east bfwoodbine avenue would initially be pumped out at a rate of 22000 litres a minute though that rate would eventually decline it is twice the amount the region took during the projects first phase which disabled dozens of private wells and caused one springfed rouge stream to disappear i walked away from the meeting with the feeling that its insane what theyre doing mr araniyasundaran said only a relatively small amount quite a bit less than one fifth will be sent north possibly as far as elgin mills road to maintain flows in fc streams most of the water would be released into streams just south of the construction area though care will be taken to prevent erosion and other harmful effects he said the agencies including the federal fisheries department and ontarios environment and natural resources ministries are taking a similar interest in a sewer extension to stouffville along the ninth line from markham that project still basically on schedule requires a watertaking permit but will be done at a much shallower depth five to 10 metres water extraction would be done for short periods the longest of which may last a few months during some tunnelling for the pipes north end mr araniyasundaran said york region and its consultants briefed a select number of residents and agency representatives thurs day night in a fourhour meeting closed to the media and public all were told not to reveal the plan or what was said about it ill get cut out of the process if i do one member said afterward it was a question of not hearing it or agreeing to these terms but markham resident lome smith another committee mem ber said he remains skeptical of the regions strategy to reduce impacts on surface water and pri vate wells i walked away from the meeting with the feeling that its insane what theyre doing the region is facing the conse quences nowofapprovingthe mas sive twinning of its sewer system in small stages and never conducting a thorough review of the entire scheme said jim robb general manager of friends of the rouge watershed theyre really acting blindly on a lot of these issues the agencies must conclude the regions mitigation plans are risky and harm to fish habitat lik ly triggering a full environmental assessment he said mr robb said the effect of releasing water from a deep aquifer to the river can be seen near outflows for the projects first phase there the rocksare cov ered by a quarter inch of black and brown discharge- reflecting algae and various metals carried from deep underground vf so they not only have to pipe it they have to clean it he said the region may undergo sirht- lar scrutiny to receive permits for the southeasif collector a proposed continuationof the same pipe through the southeastern corner of markham and the rouge park in scarborough keith west an environment ministry regional director said the agencies after receiving an overview of the mitigation plans believe the region is working hard to address all concerns so far whitchurchstouffville residents have not been inconve- nienced by well problems caused by the sewer projects mayor su sherban said the regions taktn care of them and the contractors being very involved