A $20-million project to restore the environment of Burnaby Lake and make it deep enough to once again host international rowing competitions has been stalled - by sleeping turtles.

The heavy equipment and crews needed to dredge more than 250,000 cubic metres of mud from the increasingly shallow Burnaby Lake are in place, but work hasn't started because the municipality doesn't have a provincial permit to catch and move Western Painted Turtles.

And it might already be too late to find them because, as the weather cools, the turtles start burrowing into the mud for the winter.

Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said he just learned the province hasn't issued a turtle-catching permit to the city.

"It hit us like a sledgehammer," he said yesterday.

"We were ready to go ahead. We put out the tender, we had the dredging company ready to get into the water."

Mr. Corrigan said the city has been planning the lake rejuvenation project for years, because so much silt has collected in the water body that it is choking off bird and fish habitat.

"We're doing this because we love this lake," he said.

Restoring the lake's recreational potential is also a big part of the plan.

Rowing channels, which hosted numerous international competitions and were regarded as one of the best venues in North America until the early 90s, have filled in with so much silt that boats can hardly operate.

In a widely publicized and popular project, Burnaby spent years raising funds, including getting $10-million from the province, and putting plans in place.

Mr. Corrigan said he is surprised by the dispute, because if the permit was going to be an issue, the province should have sounded alarms years ago, when the dredging plans were first drawn up.

"It's shocking to us," Mr. Corrigan said.

"It really does cause me to question the competence of the Ministry and the approach they are taking."

Ecojustice, a non-profit environmental law foundation, has written to Burnaby council on behalf of the Wilderness Committee, to object to the project proceeding without proper permits.

"Burnaby Lake supports the largest and only known viable population of Western Painted Turtles in the entire Lower Mainland," wrote Judah Harrison, a staff lawyer.

"It is likely that if the proposed dredging goes ahead as scheduled, endangered and red-listed Western Painted Turtles will be killed."

He said legal action will be contemplated if the project proceeds without the necessary permits.

Vanessa Kilburn, an independent consulting biologist who is part of a federal-provincial recovery team trying to save the Western Painted Turtle in B.C., said it would be almost impossible for anyone to catch and move turtles once they have burrowed into the mud to hibernate.

She said the City of Burnaby has been trying for a week to catch and radio tag turtles, so they could be located later.

"They are using traps baited with sardines, but it is likely the turtles have stopped feeding [because of the cool weather]," said Ms. Kilburn. "I think they have started to go under [the mud]."

Burnaby Lake has been dredged several times in the past, including in the 1950s and 1970s. But Ms. Kilburn said another disruption could be risky.

"The Western Painted Turtle is in such dire straits, even a few deaths could be devastating," she said. "I really think this project should be held off until there is more information [on where the turtles are]."

She said there are an estimated 100 of the rare turtles in the lake - more than are found in all other turtle habitats in the Lower Mainland combined.

Jennifer McGuire, Regional Manager, Environmental Stewardship for the provincial Ministry of Environment, said the permit was refused because "there was a need for additional data to confirm the over wintering sites of the Western Painted Turtle."

She said it's now up to the City of Burnaby to gather that data - but it is unlikely municipal officials can do so this fall, because the turtles are already going into hibernation.

Photo Credit: Sahua