BC C site “smelly” for a site that alters project schedule and budget

Construction on the river at the dam site, to prepare for the diversion of the river in autumn in the Northeast BCBC Hydro Hydroelectric Power Project on Site C / PNG files

Opinion: Could an earthquake triggered by rifting after an earthquake near a site make things worse than they really are or later roll back any potential repairs?

When British Columbia’s Energy Secretary, Bruce Ralston, recently revealed costly geotechnical problems at Site C in the northeast of the River Peace State, he blamed the previous government for the chaos on the most expensive public infrastructure project in the province’s history.

But while it was the previous liberal government that pledged to insert shovels into the ground and push the hydropower project beyond the point of no return, it was the current government that, more than three years ago, possessed all the relevant facts before deciding whether it would make sense to see the project even The end – the end is still untold years and billions of dollars.

Could the ongoing project risks be exacerbated by the thousands of largely unreported earthquakes that we now know are caused by fracturing in the natural gas industry in a “high stress” area not far from the dam site? You will be the judge.

One thing is quite clear is that Site C is being built on a stinking site, marked by “soft” rocky rocks and historic slides, including one in 1957 that led to the collapse of the nearby bridge in Taylor.

In 2017, a tremendous tension fault opened up on the north bank of the river excavated at Site C. The undesirable but expected event required workers to radically rearrange the bank and move 11 million cubic meters of “unstable materials”.

Then, in September 2018, a landslide occurred right downstream, wiping out a large portion of the only road leading to the Old Fort community on the banks of the river. The chip has since been reactivated.

Then, just two months after this dizzying event, a 4.5-magnitude earthquake, rapidly associated with a nearby fracturing process in the natural gas industry, rocked the ground hard at site C, prompting workers to evacuate from the site.

As the sole shareholder of BC Hydro, the county government knows all of this.

The Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, Bruce Ralston, blamed the former liberal regional government for the chaos at Site C, the most expensive public infrastructure project in British Columbia history. Arlen Redekop / PNG Files

The government also knows that thousands of earthquakes have occurred in a fragile geological area that includes Site C. The earthquakes were caused by the fracturing operations carried out by the Natural Gas Company. Now, thanks to the new mapping work released by the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, we know that more than 6,500 such earthquakes greater than 0.8 occurred in 2017 and 2018 alone in that region.

The government also knows that the British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission, which issues permits to companies allowing them to drill for natural gas and fracking, has been warning that the region is riddled with disruptions that could easily become “severe stress”, with modest increases in corporate pressure. By pumping water, sand and chemicals into the ground to “release” the trapped hydrocarbons.

Some of these weak bugs go straight towards Site C.

It’s hard to see how any of this is good news for a construction project that is in danger of being too late for schedule, and is now plagued with massive new geotechnical problems that require “improvements” to key parts of the dam infrastructure, including long, pressurized concrete pillars. The power plant, the foundation of the yet-to-be-built earth dam and the sinkhole.

Given the slowdown in dam construction due to COVID-19, this is a good time for the provincial government to appoint a committee of geologists and engineers under the Public Inquiry Act to assess ongoing geotechnical problems at Site C and get answers to a host of questions.

Why does BC Hydro now think the major components of the dam are somehow at risk? Are there physical signs of stress, like cracks, in these huge chores?

If so, when did it occur and what does BC Hydro think are the underlying causes of the stress? Can these problems be resolved realistically, safely and cost-effectively? Or is it time to cancel the project? Could a post-earthquake near the site make things worse than they really are or later undo any potential repairs?

The public deserves answers given recent project delays and spiraling costs, answers that ideally should come before so many shakes that can make things a lot worse than they really are.

Ben Parfit is a resource policy analyst in the British Columbia office of the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives.

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