Flood Hope Road
by David Ellis
March 1, 2016
Just south of Flood Hope Road, just a few 100 yards from the Fraser River, the Trans Mountain pipeline runs in a ditch that has not been properly excavated, and de-bushed, for decades this whole area is a flood plain
Here the pipe will inevitably be broken, during the emergency highway repairs when the culverts for this ditch (grown over, see below) stop working and flood this the Trans Canada highway, the major artery into Vancouver for 1000s of semi trucks and passenger vehicles, every day. A shut-down of this highway for even a few hours is a huge economic event
In the distance is the site of a rockfall onto the pipeline just after construction, 62 years ago (Wilson reference) this will also soon happen again. The Trans Mountain pipeline should have been re-routed around this ditch location, long ago; Kinder Morgan should now be required to do so, by the National Energy Board, during the summer season. Waiting for a winter heavy rain "perfect storm" catastrophe, is not responsible Federal regulation.
I shake my head every time I go past this spot, which is dozens of time every year; every ditch in B.C., except this one, is swamped out on a regular basis.
David Ellis
Vancouver
No comments:
Post a Comment