To protect the source of our drinking water, many in Chilliwack have been working to have the Trans Mountain pipelines moved to a new route away from City wells and off of the aquifer. Meanwhile, pipeline owner Kinder Morgan has also been seeking route changes. They have applied to the NEB for seven route changes including one in Chilliwack that would move the new pipeline closer to City wells. In Chilliwack the three routes in play are as follows.
The deadline for comments on Kinder Morgan’s Chilliwack Realignment application was July 17. The City sent a letter objecting to this route change because it would put the new pipeline, like the old pipeline, right across parts of the aquifer that four city wells draw water from (called capture zones). The City’s letter said “our goal is to have the new pipeline route as far from the Aquifer as possible and both the BC Hydro and TCH [Trans Canada Highway] routes satisfy that goal.”
However, the fact is that the BC Hydro route would not even move the pipeline out of the City’s Protected Groundwater Zone, much less off of the aquifer. It would probably move the new pipeline out of capture zones of two city wells, but would leave it within capture zones of two others (capture zone mapping under way now will provide the proof), and would still leave the old pipeline across all four wells’ capture zones. The BC Hydro route would also do nothing to protect Yarrow Waterworks wells, wells that Kinder Morgan seem to think are at greater risk from their pipeline than the City wells. Yarrow’s wells were included in Kinder Morgan’s June 16th list of drinking water sources at risk while the City wells, unbelievably, were not.
Our City is currently in a dispute resolution process with Kinder Morgan over route issues. It’s a David and Goliath story with pipeline jurisdiction outside of local government hands and our small city up against the largest energy infrastructure company in North America, a company that was able to raise $1.75-billion in a matter of days with an IPO that was one of the largest ever in Canada.
However what our City has backing it up is us. All of the people who love the place we live and who will come together in times of crisis, as was demonstrated when our community responded to the Fort McMurray fires, and is being demonstrated now as our community responds in support of communities hit by this years’ wild fires.
In the dispute resolution process the City is engaged in now, and the NEB detailed route public hearings to come, we need to let the City know that we are with them. Together we can take a stand for the protection of all of our drinking water wells, including those of Yarrow Waterworks, by insisting on the one route that would guarantee no pipeline spill ever into the drinking water we need. The route alongside Highway 1.
You can write to the Mayor and Council to express your support at http://bit.ly/yarrowwater
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