HYDRO RECORDS SUGGEST GROW-OPS IN FRASER VALLEY

VANCOUVER - Fraser Valley residents are two to three times as likely
to be using suspiciously high amounts of electricity -- often a sign
of a marijuana-growing operation -- as those in Vancouver and Surrey,
according to internal B.C. Hydro records obtained by The Vancouver
Sun.

Under a new provincial law introduced last year, municipalities can
demand a list of all addresses with abnormally high power consumption
- -- making it easier for police and city inspectors to target growing
operations. So far, only six municipalities have demanded that data:
Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Langley Township, Pitt Meadows, Surrey and
Vancouver. In August, The Sun reported that B.C. Hydro estimated there
were 17,900 such addresses in the entire province.

Not surprisingly, B.C.'s two largest cities also have the most
high-use homes -- 1,407 in Vancouver and 1,386 in Surrey. But
Abbotsford -- with less than one-quarter of Vancouver's population --
isn't far behind, with 1,063 homes. Indeed, as a share of population,
municipalities in the Fraser Valley have far more homes with
abnormally high power use.

By comparison, Vancouver is at 24 and Surrey at 35. Abbotsford Police
spokesman Const. Casey Vinet said he didn't know why his city has so
many high-consumption addresses.

Hydro defines abnormal consumption as any residence that uses more
than 93 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per day (the average home
uses 31 kWh a day). Hydro says not all high-consumption homes have
growing operations -- things like heated pools, hot tubs and baseboard
heating can lead to high energy use.

But Nadeau, who until recently headed B.C.'s Coordinated Marijuana
Enforcement Team, said it's safe to assume most of the homes are
growing marijuana.

"The threshold is so, so high that, to me, it's extremely doubtful
that it's for legitimate use," he said.

"I think a large majority of them will turn out to be grow-ops."