The city has asked the Vancouver Port Authority harbour master to enforce regulations regarding temporarily and permanently anchored boats, docks and floats, and to take strict action against illegal dumping in the inlet.

Coun. Karen Rockwell first asked council to tackle the issue back in September after noticing several boats, suspected to be cast-offs from live-aboard evictions in False Creek last year, had set their anchors in the inlet and “made themselves at home” all summer long.

She expressed concern over the potential blow to tourism but more so for the harmful effects to the environment.

“Are they just flushing into the inlet?” Rockwell asked at the time. “If they’ve anchored for two months straight, where else is it going to go?”

Waste flushed into the inlet would likely pose a health risk to people swimming off the Old Orchard Park beach, as well as for the area’s large population of sea lions and the nearby Noons Creek Hatchery.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, city manager Gaetan Royer said the harbour master requested a resolution from council before proceeding with plans to first notify the boaters of the impending enforcement.

“There has been a number of people in Port Moody who have called the city complaining about boats anchored at the end of the inlet and people living on board,” said Mayor Joe Trasolini. “The direction we gave to staff was to contact the harbour master’s office... to see what action could be taken.”

In summer 2006, the city of Vancouver evicted some 80 live-aboard boaters from False Creek to make way for visiting boaters.

The City of Vancouver had been trying to do so for 10 years but the federal Marine Act allowed boaters to anchor as long as they weren’t posing a hazard to marine traffic.

That legislation was changed to limit boaters to 14 days a month moorage.

spayne@tricitynews.com