TERRACE
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S TANDARD
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VOL. 24 NO. 48
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Line work powers up THE NORTHWEST Transmission Line project is going to become a lot more visible in the city when the company doing the construction work opens offices in the old Northern Savings Credit Union building on the corner of Lazelle and Sparks at the end of this month. Renovations are nearly complete for what will be Valard's main base of operations for the 287 kV line which will run 344 kilometres from BC Hydro's Skeena Substation south of Terrace to Bob Quinn on Hwy37 North. Less visible is a 50bed camp being built approximately 5km up the West Kalum Forest Service Road thanks to a lease deal for land with the Kitsumkalum First Nation. That camp, and an existing 100-bed facility at Bob Quinn Valard has purchased, reflect the con-
struction plan for the line which is to be finished in early 2014. “We'll be doing different sections at different times, depending upon environmental considerations,” explains Valard president Adam Budzinski who was in the city last week. Sitting in a meeting room in the Muks-Kum-Ol Housing Society's complex on Braun St., where Valard and its partner in the project, the engineering design firm of Burns and McDonnell, worked on what turned out to be the winning construction bid and now on actual construction details, Budzinski lays out the start of the work schedule. Following on route clearing which started at the north end of the line at Bob Quinn and on the south end at the Skeena Substation in January, Valard expects to start its construction activities in May.
The route clearing now underway is being done through agreements signed between BC Hydro and the First Nations who have traditional territory along the transmission line route. Following on those specific agreements, the Tahltan are involved in the route clearing now underway in the north and the Kitselas on clearing a route leading north of the Skeena Substation to the Skeena River. Although Valard is not directly involved in the work, it is being done to its construction and safety specifications required for the foundations and towers. Ground conditions will dictate the kind of foundations required for the towers, said Budzinski. Towers may either be secured to foundation structures called caissons or to concrete pads and bedrock, he added.
The steel towers themselves – all 1,100 of them – are an average 27 metres tall and are coming from the Indian firm of Gammon Industries. “There are four or five countries active right now in the structure business and India is one of them,” said Budzinski. The structures are being shipped through the Prince Rupert port and will be stored on Kitsumkalum territory until needed on the line route. Exactly who will provide the power line itself and the conductors has yet to be decided. The length of the transmission line and the total budget, now estimated by BC Hydro to be more than the $404 million first publicized, make it one of the larger projects of its type underway in North America.
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Gov’t says speed up dump THE AREA'S two local governments need to move quickly to build a regional dump or face significant costs to fix up the ones they operate now, the provincial government has warned. In a letter sent to the Kitimat Stikine regional district, a provincial environment official says the new dump, to be located roughly halfway between Terrace and Kitimat in a location known as Forceman Ridge needs to be open by 2015. “Although the [environment] ministry has authorized the continued discharge of waste at the Thornhill landfill up to this point, landfilling on a long-term basis will not be authorized without significant upgrades being undertaken,” said Eric Pierce. He added that the City of Terrace could expect to receive a similar letter concerning its dump and also urging it to get on with the Forceman Ridge project. “It is our hopes that the Forceman Ridge project moves ahead in a
timely manner in order to avoid any further risk to the receiving environment [close] to both the Thornhill and Terrace landfills,” Pierce continued. Both the city and regional district dumps are considered to be over-capacity and not up to current environmental standards. Both sites also concern the environment ministry because they are close to bodies of water – the Kalum River, and the Thornhill Creek. “The planned closure of both the Terrace and Thornhill sites are long overdue,” wrote Pierce, pointing to public and First Nations participation and extensive technical work done in preparation of the Forceman Ridge landfill site as having taken much longer than expected. Any major improvements to the current Thornhill and Terrace dumps would also require the same type of work that was done in preparation for Forceman Ridge and that would cost taxpayers yet more money. The upgrades would include ex-
panding each landfill's footprint, and collecting lechate and treating it. Garbage has somewhat of a tea-bag effect on water, and the water product of mixing the two is called leachate. Leachate isn't treated at either Terrace or Thornhill's landfills before running into the ground and surrounding bodies of water. And should Forceman Ridge not be open by 2015, the ministry would require an environmental monitoring program to be put in place at the Thornhill dump, involving researching if any other environmental damage is happening due to leachate and how to reduce or stop it. For the sites to continue past then, it would also need to be put in writing that there is wastewater flowing into the ground, said the letter. Despite recent protests from people concerned about Forceman Ridge's location within the Lakelse watershed, the environment ministry is satisfied with the location and work plan.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
■ Helping Jack HERE IS three-year-old Jack Armstrong, who is fighting acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A variety of fundraisers are in the works to help Jack and his family get through his treatment, taking place in Vancouver. Donations can be made to Jack Armstrong at the Northern Savings Credit Union. For more on Jack’s story, please turn to page 19.
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Helping out
No meetings
Provincial curlers
Money raised here in Terrace has helped in Japan’s quake aftermath \COMMUNITY A18
Parent and teacher interviews have been cancelled this week \NEWS A14
A team of northwest curlers represents the region at provincials \SPORTS A31