**If you are just arriving and have not read Part 1 of this story, please do so here, and take a moment in the comments section too: https://lailayuile.com/2018/10/01/if-the-land-falls-down-around-site-c-does-anyone-in-victoria-hear/ **
While many were busy observing Thanksgiving last weekend, the people of Old Fort were left in confusion and distress, as the evacuation alerts issued last week following the initial slide, expanded and became evacuation orders. In a heated meeting yesterday – live-streamed on Facebook by the Peace River Regional District – residents heard what many knew in their guts already… it’s only going to get much worse over the winter before it gets better, and they won’t be able to go home until at least next spring. One official did go as far as to say perhaps even next summer as the situation with this slide is changing daily, and winter freeze/thaw cycles will no doubt wreak further havoc.
At a public meeting Monday, residents were given an update on the situation and there are now three active slides in the area. The main slide that started on September 30, is moving anywhere from 5 to 10 metres per day and the slide has now reached the channel next to the river.
The initial slide has activated a slide on the western side that is moving four metres per day. There is now a third slide that is east of the original slide. According to the geologist hired by the Peace River Regional District, the entire subdivision is at risk.On top of the three active slides, an older landslide could reactivate. The relic slide has shown signs of deformation.
With winter almost here, the slide conditions will only get worse which could mean residents might be out of their homes until spring or summer. The precipitation and colder temperatures will make the slides more active.
~snip~
A spokesperson from the Ministry of Energy, Mines & Petroleum Resources told the crowd a stop work order was issued immediately for the gravel pit. There are approximately 40,000 to 50,000 cubic metres of material at the site and it’s not believed the stockpile of material had an impact on the slide.
The material is being removed and monitored to see if there is any more movement. There has been minimal movement at the at the mine site since removal started. The material is being used for a construction project north of Fort St. John.
When the gravel pit permit was issued, the Ministry did not require the operator to do a study on slope stability.
Residents who live near the gravel pit said they witnessed a slide in the gravel pit in July of this year. According to the Ministry spokesperson, the Ministry is not aware of the alleged slide…
Time to stop for a moment and look at this:
“…When the gravel pit permit was issued, the Ministry did not require the operator to do a study on slope stability…”
Now this, to me, is odd. Why was a slope stability study not required?
After all, in these 2017 documents from the Peace River Regional districts website regarding this property ( among others) , the instability of the area is specifically mentioned in a letter from 2015 to the former owner that was included with the package when it went before the regional district for zoning:
The gravel pit is where the initial slide started, as detailed in my first post. This photo from Alaska Highway News, shows the pit initially right after the slide. Highlighted is one very large crack where the entire pit slumped significantly right across the site, and another large crack beginning to radiate into the site.
Sources indicated to me in my first post, that a rock crusher had been running on site prior to the slide, which is normal for any gravel pit operation but does create ground vibration. One can see large piles to the front of that property.
Questions I submitted to the PRRD yesterday during the live stream were not all answered and I have not heard anything to explain this yet.
1)If the ministry previously recognized the geotechnical instability of the pit area in their own previous letter, why did the ministry subsequently not require a slope stability study in a new mine plan, as required in that earlier letter, before issuing this new permit?
2) Furthermore, if the PRRD’s own document package includes this letter and the ministries requirements for any future owner, did the PRRD staff follow up with the new owner to ensure these requirements were met? This pit is operating within the districts coverage.
Also of note from yesterdays meeting was the Ministry rep Adrian Pooley taking questions on this permit, of which he seemed to have no definitive answers. Residents spoke up stating they reported a slide by the site back in July, the ministry had no knowledge of this. Did PRRD?
(The Application for the permit was done in late June, so the timing of the slide residents at the meeting state they reported in early July is important to note) See this ad placed in the paper of that application for reference:
No matter how you look at it, both the Ministry of Mines and the Peace River Regional District have some difficult questions to answer here and residents deserve answers. Two separate sources indicate ( but not confirmed with owners) that gravel on site was to service existing clients including a gas well, not Site C.
One other aspect to consider, could construction activities, vibrations or the massive excavation of the now infamously problematic north slope I have reported on many times,have contributed in any way to what geologists are calling a deep seated failure?
Which leads me to the question everyone is asking, why isn’t site C evacuated?
The staff at yesterday’s meeting stated that movement was minimal on site C property and that ‘hydro was not concerned’. This may very well be quite accurate, but anything that comes from BC Hydro is to be taken with a MASSIVE grain of salt, particularly with my past experience in reporting on Site C.
Like every govt ministry I have dealt with, they deny, negate and when its proven my sources are correct, they downplay. That being said, these slides are still occurring outside the site c property fence ( approx. 2 kms ) from the actual north side dam construction upstream. This is why residents were being ferried to the site C dock upon evacuation.
This is also a pertinent time to remind readers of why many will continue to say everything is fine at Site C, and even champion the dam being built on shale,even if in fact it was more of a cluster*uck than it has been through these early stages:
Professional engineer John Nunn is one of the new board members appointed by the NDP in January. Nunn’s board bio on BC Hydro’s website describes him as an “engineer with over 40 years of Canadian and international experience in hydroelectric and water storage projects.”
What the bio doesn’t say is that Nunn was the chief project engineer for the Site C dam on B.C.’s Peace River, working for the engineering and consulting firm Klohn Crippen Berger, a Vancouver-based company that currently holds a contract, along with SNC Lavalin, for “design services” on the Site C dam project, according to BC Hydro.
Klohn Crippen donated almost $30,000 to the BC Liberal party between 2005 and 2016 (compared to zero dollars to the B.C. NDP).
According to Klohn Crippen Berger’s website, the company has provided “comprehensive engineering and support service since the earliest days of the Site C project.”
These include a 2005 assessment of design issues that “could affect the project cost” — then pegged at about $2 billion — and comprehensive engineering and consulting work services from 2009 to 2014, such as an acid rock drainage and metal leachate management plan.
Jim Brander, a professor at the UBC Sauder School of Business who focuses on Crown corporations, said there is a clear conflict of interest if companies that employ BC Hydro board members — or companies that used to employ board members — are awarded new BC Hydro contracts.
“It would look very suspicious if these new board members were there and new contracts were awarded to their old companies,” Brander said in an interview. “That’s an obvious conflict.”
Brander also said it is not unusual for new governments to leave crown corporation board members in place and that generally there is not a lot of turnover on these boards following the installation of a new government.
But he expressed concern that companies that donated to the BC Liberals — Klohn Crippen Berger, for example — received Site C dam and other BC Hydro contracts, saying “I don’t like the scenario of making donations and getting contracts.”
Sigh. ( Nunn was quoted once here: ” Site C came out ahead, he said, adding that it was also an excellent site for topographic and geological reasons with access to gravel for construction.” ) Did he see the Weisgarber report we’ve been writing about here over the years, several times, sent by Arthur Hadland to everyone in govt, referenced yet again in the first of these posts?
Ok then…..
I’ll keep updating and adding links as this story develops. Today the temporary permits officials asked residents to fill out, have been suspended as the slide is still far too unstable. An excellent photo gallery can be found at this link, below the main story https://www.alaskahighwaynews.ca/fort-st-john/old-fort-landslide-expected-to-worsen-as-winter-approaches-1.23456397\
And again, if you have not read the first post on this, please do so here, and take a moment in the comments section too: https://lailayuile.com/2018/10/01/if-the-land-falls-down-around-site-c-does-anyone-in-victoria-hear/ **
Read Part III HERE: https://lailayuile.com/2018/10/12/part-iii-old-fort-slide-as-evacuation-alerts-orders-continuemore-questions-for-site-c-geotechnical-concerns/
Westcoast Views with Laila Yuile 
I can’t stop musing that the deal maker for Royal Dutch Shell et al for the Kitimat LNG project was guaranteed, discounted power from Site C. No other explanation for this cover-up suffices
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Comment from a source yesterday on where this gravel was allegedly headed…( a gas well ) ” Wouldn’t it be ironic if LNG was to blame?”
One big mess after another. These poor people.
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Evacuation alert expanded this am.
https://www.alaskahighwaynews.ca/fort-st-john/old-fort-landslide-evacuation-alert-issue-for-240-and-265-roads-security-increased-1.23457422
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Wtf….where is the province on this??? https://www.facebook.com/885367448177343/posts/1871744429539635/
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Another aspect of Hydros assertion that they aren’t worried by the slide, with respect to evacuation, is that quite a few of the residents weren’t worried for the short term about the slide, but they were evacuated or ordered evacuated anyway. If it is the regional districts responsibility to call such an order then that responsibility over rides Hydros right to say that the Crown Corporation isn’t worried.
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I would agree Randy. I have a bad feeling about this entire slope and its shown ability to trigger and activate new and old slide areas.
Bob Zimmers video posted here in the comments above is alarming. Is that a home seen below them?
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Received my on line copy of the Alaska Highway News and it has an article up about which properties are to be evacuated and that includes the gravel pit above. Now who in hell’s name decided to put a gravel pit up there anyhow. any kid who plays in the dirt could have told them that wasn’t going to work.
Who is going to pay for the living expenses of those evacuated? who will pay for the boarding of live stock? who will pay for the new houses and properties the families will need?
Haven’t any of the MLAs thought about the fact we live in an earthquake zone and what a good shake will do to this dam? They may say, it will withstand an earthquake. What they can’t build to standard is the earth surrounding it. Its only shale………Can just see it now, $10B slip sliding away……..Then all the water going down.
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On that seismic front Campbell Rivers dams long overdue upgrades should have been done before this was even considered..they wont be even started for a couple more years I believe!!
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How about fracking vibrations?
https://twitter.com/LouiseinBC/status/1049139977160818689
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Doubtful. This slide began immediately below the gravel pit and triggered new slides and reactivated old ones to the east and west from there.
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All the LNG players behind BC’s gold rush for LNG (the admitted reason for pushing Site C) already have secured contracts with countries that prefer humble Canada to the United States and Donald Trump.
Contracts? Contracts are already secured? Here? Says who?
But surely there’s still a level playing field somewhere at some future date when Canada can play catch up?
Who would dare say there isn’t?
You might want to read all of this article…
https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/International/Is-The-US-Using-Force-To-Sell-Its-LNG-To-The-World.html
“Is The U.S. Using Force To Sell Its LNG To The World?”
“From the moment he chose to run for President, Trump has embraced the new shale revolution in the U.S. as a major contributor to the country’s economic growth and energy independence.”
“Increasingly, Trump has become the top promoter for increasing exports of U.S. Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) to world markets. He openly threatened to place economic sanctions on Germany if it went ahead with the deal for Russia’s new Nordstream 2 pipeline, that would nearly double natural gas supplies from Russia, Germany’s largest supplier.”
“As most observers noted, the U.S. sanction threat was accompanied by the offer of U.S. LNG to Germany and Europe, as a replacement of Russian gas.”
“It’s no accident that sanctions are aimed at the U.S. largest energy competitors, Russia and Iran, nor is it coincidence that the largest energy importers, Europe, China, Japan, south Korea are also under threat of U.S. tariffs or sanctions.”
“Instead, it clearly shows that the U.S. is using the threat of economic warfare and possible military conflict as leverage to open markets to the newest player on the world’s energy market, American LNG.”
“If the U.S. is successful in these deals, it’s likely that in future, there will be a parallel attempt to make inroads for US crude export to the very same oil importing countries, relying upon the very same LNG game plan.”
But no worries, Canada.
Anything the US and its global gas industry could come up (via incentives or threats) will be nothing compared to pandering visits from Justin Trudeau and John Horgan. You bet.
See? What could possibly go wrong?
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Simple. Shut down Site C and house the evacuees in the Site C Hilton.
Problem(s) solved, unless Hydro misrepresented the problem and there IS concern
over the stability of Site C.
This is going to make a great movie!
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….gee, one wonders who will be held accountable if the Site C Dam fails before its even finished….
This thing is shaping up to be one HUGE financial, environmental and public relations DISASTER……
Well done Horgan…..you got played big time…..I guess Christy was right….she got it to the point of “no return”…..unless the shale, the water logged slopes and a fracking earthquake decide otherwise.
Who lives down stream from .the soon to be created “Lake”?
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The people at Old Fort and Taylor.
The work on the dam continues via access gate A. The slide is not impacting work.
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Farnsworth is showing up finally, to tour the area.
Perhaps he can take Mungall so she knows exactly where this is in relation to site c, so she understands fully why her smiling confidence in Chris O’Riley is terribly misplaced…https://www.alaskahighwaynews.ca/fort-st-john/public-safety-minister-mike-farnworth-to-tour-old-fort-landslide-1.23458010
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Mother Earth verses Site C Dam———Who wins———-ME! The Environment fights for itself, irregardless what Politicians do or say. The influence in Canada by the Koch Bro. and other USA Corp. is evident, destruction and profits are the word of the Day as we evolve into madness with the taking over of the Extreme Right Wingers.
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Some illuminating video here that gives context in terms of where things are.
Curious things here. I’m wondering if the province will make an offer to buy those homes out. The geologist said cracks and reactivations have radiated out east and west of the original slide and I don’t know that this videographer is taking that into account.
I do wish someone I know and can trust would swing over in their aircraft with a videographer of their own to show the entire swatch of valley from site c to this slide to Old Fort….( hint hint)
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156189402439825&id=779689824
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“4,000 landslides will be triggered by the Site C reservoir”
Many of the landslides will be small, but some will be so large they are expected to generate waves reaching so far above the reservoir they may damage a planned new bridge across the Halfway River, according to BC Hydro reports.
“..the new L-shaped design structure.. includes construction of a roller compacted concrete buttress [on shale] that will serve as the foundation for the generating station and spillways.
“That has never been done before,” he said. “They are pioneering.”
https://thenarwhal.ca/retired-bc-hydro-engineer-calls-for-independent-safety-review-of-site-c-dam/
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Residents defy local prrd orders and go in to winterize homes and get pets/ belongings.
Can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing- this is all they have. https://www.alaskahighwaynews.ca/fort-st-john/old-fort-residents-defy-orders-start-to-gather-belongings-and-winterize-homes-1.23458549
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Update today: https://www.alaskahighwaynews.ca/fort-st-john/old-fort-landslide-update-oct-9-2018-1.23457692
”
Old Fort landslide update — Oct. 9, 2018
Alaska Highway News
OCTOBER 9, 2018 02:48 PM
The Peace River Regional District has issued the following update on the Old Fort landslide:
At 8:50 a.m. today (October 9, 2018) all temporary entry permits were suspended to the Old Fort Evacuation Order area.
The Old Fort landslide, while it is relatively slow moving, is changing on a daily basis, and at what does not appear to be a consistent rate. The Peace River area has a history of both slow moving landslides and rapid failures. Slow moving slides can start off slow and then fail catastrophically. It is not known if this current landslide will stall, or the other extreme – a rapid flowslide such as the 1973 Attachie slide that briefly dammed the Peace River – or something in between. From a public safety perspective, Westrek and the Peace River Regional District cannot support sending anyone into the area under the Evacuation Order until these questions are answered.
It is important to note that this information cannot be gathered accurately by placing boots on the ground (from a safety perspective) or by flying in a helicopter. Remote sensing techniques (such as LiDAR) is currently being used to collect more information and determine the size of the landslide, allows penetration of the vegetation cover and is the most accurate method. The Peace River Regional District has cancelled the entry permit for the gravel pit based on worker safety. The Ministry of Energy, Mines & Petroleum Resources has also issued a “stop work order” and all personnel have been evacuated from the gravel pit. Marten Geertsema PhD, PAg, PGeo from the Ministry of Forests, Lands & Natural Resource Operations, who specializes in landslides, will be in Fort St. John on Wednesday, October 10, to assist with reviewing the landslide and data.
Under the Emergency Program Act, during a local state of emergency, the Peace River Regional District has the authority to both cause the evacuation of people and to control or prohibit movement to or from an area. For this reason, security has increased at the current checkpoints in and out of the Old Fort Community as it is NOT safe for anyone to enter the Evacuation Order Area. This step has been implemented due an anticipated increase of public traffic in and out of the evacuated area due to the suspension of the temporary access permits. The RCMP will assisting with this process. The PRRD asks for everyone’s cooperation with this process as we continue to work to support the public and keep them safe
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Considering this most recent slide and past slides today I had a rather unsettling thought.
The Taylor plant sits atop large slope. Imgining that failing is scary… Imagining a damn failing and the onslaught of rushing water downstream to potentially take out that plant is terrifying.
Maybe something else you’d consider looking into, Laila.
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Yikes. You mean Spectra, right?
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I mean, REALLY! All you LNG haters should be ashamed of yourselves!
Well… OK. Perhaps the Vancouver Sun and Times Colonist did rashly post reports about that latest exploded Enbridge LNG pipeline. But let’s be clear. No injuries were reported. Nobody died. If nobody died that’s the same to journalism as nothing serious happened.
Wasn’t there a huge spill of “liquefied” natural gas? A specific quantity polluting the local environment? Not worth reporting. Because? Nobody died. Yes there was a huge fire. But it only took two hours to shut down the line. All that gas must have evaporated. Or something.
See for yourself.
https://www.timescolonist.com/news/b-c/ruptured-natural-gas-pipeline-sparks-fire-northeast-of-prince-george-1.23458017
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/enbridge-pipeline-ruptures-sparks-massive-fire-near-prince-george
The Financial Post said pretty much the same, in fewer words.
https://business.financialpost.com/news/newsalert-enbridge-pipeline-ruptures-sparks-fire-near-prince-george-b-c-2
But go ahead, search for the names Trudeau and Carr in all these reports. Not there. And if no one died, and the PM and his ally Mr Carr had nothing to say, if all the LNG evaporated and a few trees were incinerated somewhere unimportant, then there isn’t a problem.
Should BC investigate? No. Mr Farnworth is ruminatinng over the latest Site C credibility problem: the Old Fort anomaly. The Premier? Ms Mungal? Mr Heyman? Mr O’Reilly? It may be that scheduling conflicts will result in no important booster of our LNG Fiasco moving past their desks. But that`s as it should be because later some spokesperson may read from a prepared statement that “no system is perfect all the time” and “somewhere mistakes were made”. But so what? Nobody died.
Now? Look! Over there! BC ferries is going back to building ferries again!
Anxious to better understand the occult nature of BC Thought, Financial Post writer, Tristin Hopper did ask the following …
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/how-can-pipeline-hating-b-c-possibly-justify-all-these-lng-projects
“How can pipeline-hating B.C. possibly justify all these LNG projects?”
“After a concerted effort to kneecap Alberta’s fossil fuels sector, B.C. is gleefully expanding its own. Is this a cruel double standard?”
Interesting question, no? And gleeful!
Although a page-top photo-op of smiling enthusiastic LNG promoters Trudeau and Horgan shows them looking elsewhere, they aren’t quoted as saying anything.
Anyone care to help poor Tristan understand how carefully pols at both the Federal and Provincial levels will dismiss this explosion as a mere non-tragic accident? A once-in-a-million-years mishap?
Be Tristan’s guest. Please explain what makes BC so shameless.
thopper@nationalpost.com
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Yes, they’re big on no one died. Of course they were lucky, the blast took place in the middle of no where. If it had been in Burnaby, there would have been more than a few deaths and would have over whelmed the hospitals. Not a pretty sight.
If we are to have pipelines, they need to be kept up to standard. building a pipeline and then forgetting about it for 50 years is always going to create problems and when those problems happen in a city, people die, oh, right they have a budget line item for that also, not to mention a really bunch of nice looking funerals.
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I used to drop a little comments once in a while in my circle where i would say, I bet John Horgan is going to have the dam continue on because special interests have to be taken care of, as was the same for the previous dirty bunch in power. Just a simplified take or sum up on what i get out of the big picture.
Now a bit more, but on the LNG deal. I still to this day am astonished, but not surprised that our politicians and much of media still champion deals made with the devil. The big corporate multi national players and investors like Shell and and especially Petronas have some pretty dismal records of complicity in foreign countries, with those governments involving horrendous abuses against humanity and environmental pollution and so on. It doesn’t take more than seconds to search this stuff. Tons of solid accurate information that makes one sick to the stomach and angry. I’m ashamed of most of our so called leaders. Here these hypocrites in office sometimes espouse the greatness of our western democracies like here in Canada about the respect of human rights and dignity and all things good that relates to that. Of course it’s all about jobs, economy, revenues, special interests and votes. At what price though. What a disgusting bunch of creeps. And where is media. The Sun, The Province, and the reporters and columnists and elsewhere in big media across this great nation of human rights builders. It’s a mind blower. So much for progress on the humanities front. Turning a blind eye by government doesn’t seem to apply to only casino money laundering.
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I’m hesitant to bring this into the current conversation but feel it is a vitally important piece of the big picture.
SNC Lavilin, has been cozy, under the covers with the BC Liberals and now the NDP because of their enmeshment with Site C, BC Ferries, TransLink and who knows what else. They do not want public scrutiny.
Under a cloud of bribery and corruption allegations, they want the Federal Government to settle out of court. The Feds say no; SNC contemplates appealing that decision. Slimy, is the word that comes to mind.
SNC wants desperately to end this thing with the words; “confidentiality agreement” and “the parties have agreed to not disclose the terms of settlement.”
This has been reported in the eastern media business pages, because SNC shares dropped by 10%. It should be front page, nationally, as every Canadian taxpayer has unwittingly contributed to this company’s bottom line.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/snc-lavalin-1.4856869
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SNC Lavelin is part of the lead design team on site c. So quite relevent.
Also of note and very obvious,are politicians tweets and noises of concern over the Pg gas line incident….yet not one word anywhere other than Bob Zimmer and local FSJ poli’s about this slide or the evacuee’s…its almost like none can even acknowledge it happened!
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there does seem to be a lot of silence about all of this. That is why I subscribed to the Alaska Highway News and check this blog every morning, well my version of it, being retired and all. What concerns me, is if the dam is built and fails, where will all that water go and how all will die? Has anyone given any thought to that.
As to SNC isn’t that Lavalin which is banned from doing projects in other parts of the world and by some international aid organizations? If its one and the same, perhaps we might want a nice big enquiry into them and their dealings with governments in this country. If there is a list of organizations, which they are banned from doing work for, we all ought to know.
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More evacuations as slide moves up the coulee….
And still silence from our premier. Nada. Nothing. Zip.
https://www.energeticcity.ca/2018/10/prrd-expands-landslide-evacuation-alert-area-south-of-fort-st-john/
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There likely is such a list, but BC is NOT on it.
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The World Bank banned SNC from bidding on any large govt contracts it was funding.
SNC signed a deal with Libyan dictator Khaddafi a few years before he was violently overthrown.
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/04/17/world-bank-debars-snc-lavalin-inc-and-its-affiliates-for-ten-years
https://business.financialpost.com/news/rcmp-charges-snc-lavalin-with-fraud-and-corruption-linked-to-libyan-projects
I think the final straw for the US Justice Dept ( since Canadian authorities seemed to ignore SNC’s dalliances) was when an SNC employee with Libyan Khaddafi family members on a private chartered jet landed in Mexico with apparently millions in cash, gold, jewelry,etc and fake Canadian passports to refuel and fly to Canada. The SNC employee was thrown in a Mexican prison and SNC washed their hands of her.
Thats when the RCMP “raided SNC’s head office in Montreal …..with US Justice Dept agents watching…………..
Just google “SNC and corruption” and spend hours reading…………..
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Yes, unbelievable. Our Premier the Honourable John Horgan is MIA. Did i say Honourable. I slipped up because i don’t normally find any use for that prefix for most of the politicians.
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Ms Yuile.
A Star report on the Old Fort anomaly offers on-site pictures of large cracks in a twisted roadbed and shows a large hillside literally splitting in two. Impressive.
https://www.thestar.com/vancouver/2018/10/08/life-in-the-shadow-of-a-landslide.html
“Mellafont said winter weather including precipitation and freeze-thaw conditions will likely only make the slide and surrounding areas less stable. “Relic” landslides to both the east and west of the first have been reactivated, she said, with stress fractures extending into the surrounding areas for hundreds of metres in some places. The main slide is still moving at up to 10 metres a day, she added, with no sign of stopping. And until it stabilizes, conclusive testing cannot begin. Even then, she said, it will take several months before any answers emerge.”
Winter weather and freeze-thaw conditions can do that much damage? Horizontal land, by itself, can fracture solid roadbeds without there being anything tectonic going on underneath?
Even if landslides aren’t being triggered by sub-surface mini-quake activity, if this sort of convulsing is common to the area how can anyone trust an enormous dam nearby will never be affected? Polite but firm Assurances from project supporters?
Consider: An LNG pipeline explodes. So much for assurances that they can’t or won’t. And freeze-thaw conditions cause land deformation over a wide area. But these two items have no connection with
Site C
Fracking
Enormous financial risk.
Why not?
FYI. The Enbridge Explosion? Not a word from any Tyee writer has appeared. But on a sidebar is a link to The Financial Post.
The Tyee’s Old Fort story? Not a word. It’s not News unless somebody dies or a prominent pol offers an opinion..
BTW is the Peace River area tectonically active? Would it matter?
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Preaching to the choir here. See my site C page above? Over 40 posts and a plethora of financial, geological and cultural reasons to stop this damn dam. I hear you loud and clear. It absolutely breaks my heart and their decision to bite into the sunk cost fallacy devastated me after seeing Peace residents reactions.
According to Mungall, everything at hydro is awesome and no concerns over site c – at least she is on the record on this.
Farnsworth was on site today and was visibly shocked to see the magnitude of this. He compared the damage and buckled roads and earth to something one would see in a devastating earthquake movie of LA or Japan. Seriously it is that remarkable.
But if this disaster unfolding just down from site c, creeping closer, isnt a hard smack of reality for each MLA in the legislature, on both sides of the house, to make them stop and call for a truly independent geotech review, I don’t think there is hope to make them see sense.
Particularly with members & boosters on both sides willing to sit in silence and be complicit “because perfection is the enemy of progress” or
” Well this is still better than BC Libs”
What they fail to see in their hyperpartisan bubbles is that silence in the face of wrong is EXACTLY how the libs became as arrogant & corrupt as they did. Their supporters stayed silent through it all…
‘ Because power’.
New pics
https://www.alaskahighwaynews.ca/photos/photos/old-fort-landslide-update-1.23459484
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Evacuation alert expanded towards town and detention ponds.
https://prrd.bc.ca/evacuation-alert-area-expanded/
Can anyone in hydro or this govt give us an assurance something similar won’t happen to site c one day??
I’m pretty sure no one expected tension cracks would be headed towards town while the slide moves out into the river channel….
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Laila Yuile: “And still silence from our premier. Nada. Nothing. Zip.”
It won’t take much more silence, for the cynic in me to declare Mr. Horgan has been sequestered, ala Christy Clark, by the powerful puppet masters.
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BC Hydro says the Site C project is designed “to the highest recommendations” of the Canadian Dam Association, to withstand major events such as earthquakes and floods, and that the project design is in keeping with “international best practice”.
Is that the same as “world class marine cleanup”?
One would think that after 4,000 slides the reservoir would be full of mud, not water. Sort of a Debris Collector?
What else is it going to take to convince Hydro that even Mother Nature is against this foolhardy venture. Hang down your head John Horgan. Poor boy, you’re gonna die…( with apologies to the Kingston Trio, I think.)
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e.a.f.
It’s a great relief that nobody important and worthy of a syndicated newspaper column ever claimed that the Peace River area is quake prone.
Except for…
https://www.alaskahighwaynews.ca/regional-news/local-news/earthquakes-shake-up-hearings-1.1151579
Except for…
Click to access 98041E.pdf
But how could any politician concede or even imagine that the BC coast and the interior the region might be prone to earthquakes larger than current Hydro models predict?
We must have the blindest of Faith in those currently-acceptable corporate-cited models: the stellar ones that confirmed that Fukushima’s worst-case-outcomes-couldn’t-possibly-happen. Be exceeded? Never..
John’s Aghast
Is it clever for so many past and present cabinet ministers not to re-check existing data for updates and second opinions? Is it wise to shut off debate at the point where mega-projects need to address obvious holes in their assumptions?
Or should the public just wait for more horrible proofs that, “even Mother Nature is against this foolhardy venture.”?
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Now Fort St John is starting to worry as well.
https://www.alaskahighwaynews.ca/fort-st-john
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Yes I would sure like to know why the Ministry of Mines issued a permit to the pit operator without a slope stability study done. The 2015 letter I posted above are exceedingly clear wrt the instability….
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Oh don’t worry about site c though guys
Andrew Watson,lead design, was on CBC this morning and said there is no concerns and all the various design points of the dam have accounted for this:
The north bank was nearly entirely removed to mitigate side risk( my pics in the last post show iron rich water still leaking though the terraces…
The base is keyed into the rock ( shale which has more than likely been reinforced by drilling holes and injecting a concrete slurry into the cracks )
A unique design to account for the lack of a bank on the north slope now ( dams usually between two high banks)
Yes they will keep building and all concerns are silly because there are two other dams on the Peace that are fine ( yet he doesn’t mention this eastern portion is known to be far more unstable than where those other dams are situated and both of those dams are traditional, tested designs)
Yes we are all a bunch of silly twits because hydro never lies, or exaggerates, or minimizes or….or….
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If the Old Fort Landslide continues to encroach on the Peace River will they call it ‘Site D’?
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Oh see my other comment. Hydro has no concerns and they are monitoring 🙄
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I have just emailed:
john.horgan.mla@leg.bc.ca
michelle.mungall.MLA@leg.bc.ca
andrew.weaver.mla@leg.bc.ca
A simple question; why the silence from your office on Old Fort?
—————
It’s not so much about the question, or even expecting an answer, but rather to let them know their behavior ia being monitored.
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They know. They all know. But the whip is mightier than the pen in that group. Site c is for Kitimat LNG which countered the longstanding BC Lib narrative that the ndp is the party of No. The billions from LNG will help fund climate change policy, the on where average people will pay through the nose so corporate polluters like Shell can continue to produce emissions to make profit.. 🙄
Btw. Has the ndp given notice to pull out of the Equivalency Agreement yet? The only real thing they can do to stop Kinder Morgan? No? Hmmm.
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https://seanholman.com/whipped/
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Yes, they have always been whipped. Ask any of the Bakers Dozen how they were treated after ousting Carole James,although under Horgans strong arm no one would dare speak.This is how progressive allies who disagree or critique the ndp are treated as well. When I wrote about the Georgia Collins issue I received, in writing via Facebook dm,several messages from local ndp members politely suggesting I shut up(ironically,all women). When I said I found his behavior disturbing (this was just prior to the #metoo movement I believe) the response from one was “Life in a small town can be hard if you get on the wrong side of people”
Since the election there has been more of this kind of not so subtle insinuation…and not just with me. Anyone who dares speak against Horgan or the ndp is automatically labeled a BC Lib,which is insane. All these people didn’t change… something inside the NDP party did. We have all, for years, written or worked to expose BC Liberal corruption and there is much of it as the public now knows and there will be more to come I am sure…which is why we desperately need a corruption inquiry in BC, one with teeth and power to subpoena and compell testimony.
But we aren’t getting that either so far.
The difference is now putting this whip to paper for executive and committees at the provincial level.
The big question on this story is….” Or what?”
What will they do if they speak publicly?
And what kind of working atmosphere is that to foster? How will this engage new, progressive members into the party? All it is going to do is ensure the most partisan of partisans continues to run the show, without any regard to anything but protecting the inner fold that increasingly is diverging from what a large number of party members believed this party to be all about.
This is not how to show you are different from the Liberals.
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