#1 50 tonnes of 'fatbergs' removed from Richmond sewers
Metro Vancouver has removed more than 50 tonnes of fatbergs — chunks of hardened grease — from the sewer system in Richmond since July.
This is the first time the regional utility corporation has seen the problem "to this scale," according to Dana Zheng, program manager of source control planning and management at Metro Vancouver
Zheng explained large amounts of fatbergs in the sewer system normally happen in high-density areas.
"Richmond, in particular, has always been a bit of a hotspot for grease issues and that's a combination of the ... high number of restaurants in the area as well as it is very flat in Richmond," she said.
"Wastewater then tends to sit in the pipes, which gives it that extra time for grease to harden and line our sewer mains."
Hardened grease comes from dairy products, margarine, gravy, cooking oils, salad dressing, mayonnaise and even animal fats that are poured down the drain or flushed down the toilet.
Clogged pipes due to fatbergs damage infrastructure, reduce capacity for wastewater and can lead to sewer backups into homes, and businesses as well as into the environment.
#2 Richmond company donates $7M to UBC innovation centre
UBC's newest food innovation centre was named after the owner of a Richmond-based food company who arrived in Canada in 1979 as an 18-year-old refugee from Vietnam.
Dan On, founder of Dan-D Foods Ltd. and the Dan On Foundation, donated $7 million to fund the construction of UBC's Food and Beverage Innovation Centre.
In recognition of his donation to UBC's Faculty of Land and Food Systems, the post-secondary institution is naming the facility the Dan On Food and Beverage Innovation Centre.
The centre will have three research bays for lease to small and mid-sized companies with access to kitchen spaces to develop food products.
It also includes a processing lab equipped with high-pressure processing, microwave-vacuum dehydration, individual quick freezing, fluid extraction and fermentation capability technologies.
#3 Fabricana closes after five decades
A family-owned fabric store beloved by Richmond sewers closed this year after more than five decades in the community.
"All fabrics must go," "final markdowns" and "Richmond location closing. All sales final" were some of the colourful signs spotted in Fabricana's Richmond location in early March.
Irene Collingwood, store manager, told the Richmond News employees learned of the closure four months earlier, and everyone decided to stay on board until the end.
"Everybody's here till the ship goes down," she said.
Collingwood, who has worked at Fabricana for 15 years, said all employees are long-term hires, with the longest tenure being 25 years.
"We are such a cohesive family here," she said.
"We've always taken pride in our store being organized and all that.... the family is what we're gonna miss a lot. And the customers are our family as well."
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