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Pubdate: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB) Copyright: 2006 Calgary Herald Contact: http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66 Author: CanWest News Service Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Marijuana - Canada) 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." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake