Editor, The Times:
The second most likely, logical area (after the Coquihalla region) where we are going to to get the big spill is the Blue River summit area in the North Thompson.
This is another high altitude area of long duration snow cover, also a mini-rainforest with high rainfall were long duration wet soil, in combination with poor circa 1954 culverting, will have led to many areas where the cathodic protection system, is not workable any more, leading to very heavy corrosion
This area had persistent leaks in the initial 1954 water testing
There is little public information as to the number of past and present repairs in this region, this data needs to be publicized.
How many exposed pipe sites, and round, red, metal signs, have you seen? These indicate past pipe weaknesses. My hunch would be that, as in the rest of this pipeline, poor maintenance is the order of the day and that corrosion is a big problem here as it is in the Coquihalla region. The pattern appears to be that, until a spill occurs, few repairs will go ahead.
Also keep your eyes open for the presence of oily, contaminated soil, indication slow "pinhole" leaks. The occasional Kinder Morgan helicopter patrols have not been good at spotting these leaks
A good method is to do interviews with ATVers who are using the right of way on weekend.
Pipeline runners are urgently needed in the Blue River region before the snow flies.
David Ellis
Independent pipeline critic