#burnaby mountain

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Pics Bill Bain

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Photograph found in Alberta in 2019

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Burnaby Mountain, Burnaby, Canada. The skyscrapers in the distance is Vancouver.

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Went for a hike on Burnaby Mountain and saw lots of mushrooms!

[pnwpol]

Burnaby man alarmed at trees being ‘mowed down’ at Trans Mountain tank farm

John Preissl, who has long criticized Trans Mountain’s sediment control measures, has written a letter to the Canadian Energy Regulator demanding a stop to trees being cut, specifically in the fish-bearing Upper Eagle Creek.

Sep 26, 2019 | Preissl said he has witnessed many trees being cut this week that he alleges are putting fish habitat at risk, with many other trees being marked for removal on the site.

“(Many) of the trees in Eagle Creek have been chopped down and they are still mowing down trees today,” Preissl wrote in an email on Thursday. “These riparian zones immediately adjacent to the creeks are critical for a healthy salmon and fish creek … The site is essentially one massive mud pit.”

Preissl says that with the fall rainy season arriving, these fish-bearing creeks are even more at risk due to sediment stirred up by work at the site.

Trans Mountain has told the NOW previously that the work being done has been approved and that the company is following strict standards set out in its permit.

[I]n 2018, an inspection of the tank farm found several improperly installed sediment and erosion control measures. The joint inspection included inspectors from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), the B.C. Ministry of Environment, the National Energy Board (NEB) and the Indigenous Advisory and Monitoring Committee – a 13-member group that advises regulators and monitors the Trans Mountain project.

Inspectors found four issues with the sediment control and erosion measures:

A sediment fence, meant to prevent particulate matter form entering a waterway, was found to be improperly keyed in along Silver Creek tributaries.

Another sediment fence at the bottom of a hill on the east side of the property “had been inappropriately installed and failed, resulting in sedimentation into a wooded area.”

Blankets meant to control erosion were also not installed properly along Silver Creek tributaries.

Hydroseed – a slurry of seed and mulch – was found on top of erosion control blankets along Silver Creek tributaries.

“Please do not tell me that Trans Mountain is abiding by their strict environmental conditions and their strict sediment control plan,” Preissl wrote in his letter to the CER. “Those plans have failed miserably and completely last year and will again now.”

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[allthecanadianpolitics]

Kinder Morgan's Burnaby Crude Oil Tank Farm a Danger to Residents

This tank farm doesn't need to be tripled -- it needs to be moved away from Forest Grove Elementary School.

"If fire erupted in the expanded tank farm proposed as part of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline, it could create a nightmare scenario, with flames engulfing Burnaby Mountain and causing a massive urban evacuation.

That dire warning was issued Wednesday in a report by Chris Bowcock, deputy chief of the Burnaby Fire Department, who did a risk assessment of the tank farm, which would double in size, to 26 storage tanks, under the Trans Mountain proposal.

In a brief statement, Kinder Morgan Canada defended the safety of the proposed tank farm and said the company will work with the fire department to address any concerns.

The assessment, which Burnaby will file with the National Energy Board (NEB) in the review now under way, says by adding 13 tanks to the existing oil storage facility on Burnaby Mountain, the spacing will be so tight that fire could easily jump from one tank to another, creating a "boilover" event that would be unstoppable.

"A boilover is a little like a chain reaction. Once [the burning tanks] have started in motion it's very difficult to stop them," said Deputy Chief Bowcock, who is trained in fighting tank fires. "It's almost like at some point it's a runaway train and you just have to get out of the way of it. The trouble is, in the middle of the prairies with no one around it might be achievable with a lower impact, but in the City of Burnaby … we'd have to do a mass evacuation."

He said millions of barrels of crude oil could erupt in flames, and winds would carry burning oil beyond the boundaries of the tank farm.

"All that molten hydrocarbon is going to land in a forested area and you are going to have a pretty significant forest fire on the top of Burnaby Mountain, which by all accounts would be almost impossible to extinguish," he said. "These are high consequences."

Continue Reading.

[vladtheunfollower]

Gordon Cornwall update on "Burnaby 15" injunction hearing, which concluded yesterday:

Kinder-Morgan got their injunction, as expected. However, we (the two defence lawyers, David Mivasair and myself (self-represented)) managed to beat it back in scope, if not duration: from a 50 m 'buffer zone' around KM properties (Westridge and the tank farm) to 5 m, with exceptions carved out for public trails and roadways, parks, schools, private property, the reservoir, etc. The duration, unfortunately, is for the duration of the project - which, we still hope, will be terminated prematurely.

Here is what I told the court when I finally got to speak yesterday:

"I want to explain my reasons for standing in Bayview Drive and holding out my hand to stop construction-related traffic from entering Westridge Terminals. I will also present three reasons why the injunction, if it must be granted, should be limited in scope and duration.

In their lawsuit against the defendants, Trans-Mountain claims that, by blocking Bayview, we delayed their work, cost them money, and caused them harm.

I took the actions I did in an attempt to prevent a greater harm from being inflicted on myself, my family, and society by Trans-Mountain and the rest of the fossil fuel industry.

I respectfully ask the court to take judicial notice of the broader context of global warming caused by manmade greenhouse gases.

Tran-Mountain’s proposed pipeline expansion is not compatible with Canada’s Paris commitment to make best efforts to keep global temperatures from rising beyond 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels.

Average global temperatures have already risen by 1° C, and harm is evident around the world. Looking at BC alone, we have seen in recent years a trend towards hotter, drier summers. The summer of 2017 broke records for lack of rainfall, and the result was a record year for wildfires. The cost to BC taxpayers of fighting the 2017 fires was $500M, and that does not include the military response. Figures for the damage caused by the fires – hundreds of buildings lost, 1.2 million hectares of forest destroyed, 400,000 hectares of rangeland made unproductive, cattle and wildlife injured and killed, the impact on tourism – the dollar value of that damage is not yet known. Nor is the cost of the health impacts on British Columbians across much of the province, including the Lower Mainland, from breathing smoky air for weeks on end. Nor is the psychological cost to many people who lived last summer in fear of losing their homes and cottages, their animals, and potentially their lives. For two months, my wife and I watched the Elephant Hill fire rip through 100 miles of forest from Ashcroft north to Sheridan Lake, where my family has owned a summer place for 60 years. Our place was saved by a fluke, a lucky change of wind.

The threat of global warming is one of imminent harm. No one knows exactly how it will play out, which parts of the world will be hit next by what disasters. We can see clearly that, unless we stop expanding fossil fuel production as Canada is still doing, unless we rapidly convert to a renewable energy economy, we are on a path to a global temperature increase perhaps as high as 4 ° C. That would cause unimaginable harm.

If an injunction must be granted in favour of the applicant, this harm being perpetrated by Trans-Mountain and other corporate entities is a reason to limit its scope and duration.

Also, legal cases naming the applicant, Trans-Mountain Pipeline ULC, specifically referencing the Trans-Mountain pipeline expansion project, are currently before Canadian courts.

Among other cases, I refer to the Trans Mountain Expansion Project judicial reviews consolidated under file number A-78-17, currently before the Federal Court of Appeal. The applicants include the Tseil-Waututh Nation, the Musquam Indian Band, Aitchelitz et al, the Upper Nicola Band, the Squamish Nation, the Coldwater Indian Band, Chief Ron Ignace of the Stk’emiupsemc Te Secwepemc Nation, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and Living Oceans Society, the City of Vancouver, and the City of Burnaby. Respondents include the National Energy Board, Trans Mountain Pipeline ULC, and the Attorney General of Canada.

The seven day oral hearing concluded in Vancouver at the Federal Court of Appeal on 13 October 2017. The court’s decision is still pending. In their May 25, 2017 prospectus, Kinder Morgan warned its shareholders that if the applicant is successful in this consolidated case, the Trans Mountain Expansion Project may be stopped altogether.

I refer also to the case brought by the BC Government appealing the NEB decision that permitted Kinder Morgan Canada to bypass two sections of the City of Burnaby’s bylaws on land and tree clearances.

I refer also to the City of Burnaby’s application for leave to appeal the same NEB decision.

As a result of these and other active court cases, the Trans-Mountain construction activities which have been described as lawful in this courtroom, may soon be found to be unlawful. That is another reason for limiting the scope and, especially, duration of any injunction granted to the applicant. A third reason for limiting the scope and duration of the injunction, if it is to be granted at all, is the concern expressed by many Burnaby residents in the neighborhood of Westridge Terminals and the Burnaby Tank farm, about the impact of any injunction on their normal activities and enjoyoment of the area. In addition to the evidence presented yesterday by my friend Mr. Leggett, I wish to draw the court’s attention to the affidavit of Maurice Jackson, who, with another Justin Trudeau Brigade participant and the help of two neighbours collected signatures from local residents expressing opposition to the injunction. The affidavit says 38 signatures, but by my count there are 40."

A couple of points:

The judge (Justice Kenneth Affleck) had the opportunity to deny my request for him to take judicial notice of the facts of global warming, but he did not do so. In this court, unlike the NEB hearings, evidence of global warming is admissible. I also, unexpectedly, hit the bulls-eye by describing last year's fire summer. Justice Affleck made three remarks during my submission. One was to say he didn't need to be convinced of the threat of climate change. The second was to remark that he too had a home or cottage threatened by the fires last summer, but his burned to the ground! (I expressed my sympathy.) The third was to point out that he could not, in those proceedings, rule on whether Trans-Mountain's project was good or bad. I told him I understood.

Trans-Mountain's lawsuit against the 15 named defendants, including me, is still pending. Their lawyer went out of his way yesterday to say that they may still pursue it. "Why wouldn't we?"

source

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