BC HYDRO BILLS POINT TO 17,900 POSSIBLE POT GROW OPS

Nearly 18,000 homes in B.C. -- about the same number of residences as
in all of West Vancouver -- use suspiciously high amounts of
electricity, often a telltale sign of a marijuana growing operation.

Under provincial legislation introduced last spring, municipalities
can request a list from BC Hydro of all addresses with abnormally high
power consumption -- making it easier for police and city inspectors
to target growing operations. Abnormal consumption is defined as any
residence that uses more than 93 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity
per day. The average home uses 31 kWh per day.

In July, the Vancouver Sun filed a freedom of information request with
BC Hydro asking how many of its residential customers fit that definition.

The reply: 17,900.

Hydro said it was unable to provide a city-by-city breakdown of where
the high-consumption homes are located.

But a rough estimate based on each city's share of B.C.'s population
suggests there could be 2,500 high-consumption homes in Vancouver,
1,700 in Surrey and 900 in Burnaby.

And Delta -- which has just eight officers in its drug section --
could soon be getting a list of about 450.

Sgt. Harj Sidhu, head of the Delta police drug section, said dealing
with that volume of tips will be a challenge.

"Is it going to be easy? No," he said. "We're going to have to start
whittling that list down."