INSIDE: Jehovah’s Witnesses gather en masse at Prospera Pg. 3 T H U R S D A Y
July 4, 2013
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Protest puts pipeline on hold BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
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Former mayor of Abbotsford George Ferguson (left) speaks to reporters about flood protection at a Chilliwack restaurant Wednesday. To Ferguson’s left are former Chilliwack mayor John Les, former District of Kent mayor Sylvia Pranger and former Chilliwack mayor Clint Hames.
Ex-mayors sound flood alarm
BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
F
our ex-mayors gathered in a Chilliwack restaurant Wednesday to raise alarm bells over the threat of Fraser River flooding. The recent disastrous flooding in Alberta should be a wake-up call for everyone in the FraserValley, according to former Chilliwack mayor John Les. “The water got up to 26 feet in 1894,” Les said. “It’s bound to do that again one day. . . . When it does, I don’t think we’re prepared.” Les spoke to the local media
With images of Alberta’s recent flood disaster fresh in their minds, former area mayors say now is the time to start thinking flood prevention
alongside fellow former Chilliwack mayor Clint Hames, the past mayor of Abbotsford, George Ferguson, and former District of Kent mayor Sylvia Pranger. Hames told reporters he has personal connections to a number of people whose homes have been destroyed in High River and there are several families affected by flood-
ing in Alberta who have had to come to live with local families. Hames said the river management that has gone on for 100 years in the gravel reach of the Fraser River protects $6 billion to $7 billion worth of infrastructure. “When you make a decision to manage it, to build dikes, or harden the banks . . . you can’t stop doing
those things,” Hames said. “You can’t back away from river management.” The mostly unspoken controversy at the heart of the ex-mayors’ concern is about Fraser River gravel removal. Critics of gravel removal say it does little to reduce the threat of high water, the practice damages
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f Spectra Energy can’t get onto land blocked by five Chilliwack farmers in the next couple weeks, the company’s natural gas pipeline replacement project will have to wait until 2014. “Ideally, we should be on the land now,” said Gary Weilinger, vice-president of Spectra, outside City Hall Tuesday. “We’ve got the vast majority of landowners’ support and unfortunately we haven’t been able to come to terms with this small group in terms of what it is that they are looking for from us.” But some of those landowners were not impressed with Weilinger’s presentation on Tuesday to Chilliwack city council. “It was a joke,” said local farmer, landowner and University of the Fraser Valley agriculture professor Tom Baumann. Spectra’s pipeline carries 60 per cent of the natural gas produced in British Columbia, according toWeilinger. To meet safety standards, the company has been ordered by the National Energy Board (NEB) to replace three kilometres of its 30-inch pipeline through Chilliwack. A second 36-inch pipe that runs parallel will not be replaced because it was installed in 1972 and already meets the new standards. Both pipes run beneath approximately 20 private residential and farm properties as well as the parking lots of Superstore, Cottonwood Mall, Chilliwack Mall and Redline Water Sports.
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