The Chilliwack 13
Progress Tuesday
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Derby
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Mini pug helps on the road to recovery.
Hundreds of pikeminnow caught.
Moving the sport outdoors.
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Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • T U E S D AY, J U N E 1 8 , 2 0 1 3
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Hungry python plucked from back country
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Jennifer Feinberg The Progress
The young camper spotted something yellow lurking in the bushes Sunday around Chipmunk Creek. It turned out to be a six-foot long albino ball python. It is being housed safely at the SPCA facility, confirmed Ivanna Ferris, manager of the Chilliwack branch B.C. SPCA. “It’s very disappointing,” said Ferris about the abandoned snake. In fact it’s illegal to abandon an exotic pet in the wild — or any pet for that matter. “It’s quite tragic. Although not everyone has the means to take care of an animal like this, someone at some point loved this creature.” A family from Port Coquitlam had been camping in the Chipmunk Creek area, off Chilliwack Lake Road, when one of their three young daughters spotted what turned out to be the abandoned ball python. “The family had some previous experience with reptiles as pets, and so they were quite comfortable with handling it,” she said. “They knew it was a pet snake and not something indigenous to the area.” They gently retrieved the python, and loaded it in their vehicle and dispatched it to the protective custody of the Chilliwack SPCA facility. “From what we can see he
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Bill and Nancy Singer, seen here with dog Snowball, will be welcoming the public into their garden this Saturday as part of the Chilliwack Rotary Garden Tour. Read the story on page 6. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Oil pipeline may have slowly leaked for ‘weeks’ Jeff Nagel Black Press
The Trans Mountain pipeline may have been slowly leaking for an extended period of time before Kinder Morgan Canada crews found crude oil on the ground. The small spill now estimated at about five barrels of oil 40 kilometres southwest of Merritt was discovered Wednesday morning and prompted the company to shut down the pipeline. Hugh Harden, Kinder Morgan Canada’s vice-president of operations, said Thursday crews are expected to install a permanent
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repair sleeve allowing the line to reopen by Friday evening. He said it’s difficult to say how long oil had been escaping. “I would say it was a matter of days or weeks rather than months or years,” Harden said. “It was a very, very, very slow leak. It’s almost classified as a weep.” At five barrels of oil, the spill would technically be below the National Energy Board’s 1.5 cubic metre (approximately 10 barrel) threshold for reporting spills that don’t reach water courses. Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline in Chilliwack passes through several residential
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neighbourhoods and agricultural lands, a route that the planned second line is expected to follow. The only oil spill in Chilliwack’s history was one cubic metre released on the line in 1988, according to the National Energy Board. Kinder Morgan’s documents indicate that the former Wahleach pump station past Rosedale spilled 440 barrels of crude in 2007. Abbotsford’s Sumas Mountain station and line has spilled 2,250 barrels of crude in the last decade. Harden said the Merritt leak was found because Kinder Morgan crews arrived to check
that section of the pipeline after an in-pipe inspection device flagged it as having a potential defect. They noticed an oily patch the size of a wagon wheel and called the control centre, which shut down the pipeline. Otherwise, workers would have excavated the pipe to inspect its exterior for leaks or problems. “The fact that the tool found it is actually a good thing,” Harden said. “It tells us our inspection process is valid and we’re finding these very small defects.” Chilliwack residents along the Continued: PIPELINE/ p4
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