Last paragraph says it all.

Landfill on a flood plain! It appears our leaders had no brains back then either.

And here I thoought this said it all:

“he cannot say if there is any possibility the gas could be coming from a former landfill site. “Lakeland Mills was built in 1973. Prior to that time there were landfills in the area. We are in the process right now of confirming whether or not a landfill was being actively used underneath where Lakeland sits today. I cannot comment on whether or not that is the case, but there were landfills in the area.”

What were accpeted practices then, are not accepted practices now for some obvious reasons.

The question we have to face everyday is what are the accepted practices now that will not be the accepted practices 25 years from now, 50 years from now, etc.?

Exactly, Dragonmaster!!! Too many mr.pg around then as well.

What has the Community Energy System pipeline have to do with this problem.

Would an underground pipeline from Lakeland to 1st Ave disturb the soil and maybe activate some leakage of methane gas?? Who knows.

We know that the whole area has been an industrial site since the arrival of CN Rail (GTP) in 1912, so we can assume the the soil is contaminated. The pipeline was pushed under the railway tracks North and then West to the Community Energy System building, so who knows what it was pushed through.

@ gus – excuse me, what do you mean by “Too many mr.pg around then as well.

@ Palopu – I imagine the company is shutting down the energy system because they believe that the structure is dangerous to operate. Spark from machinery may set off methane.. Just guessing.

maybe cause of fire??? Just speculating.

I recall that landfill being just to the east of where Lakeland is sitting. Lamb’s old sawmill site was to the north of it. Landfill was close to the old crossing to the cache across from NR Motors.
The railway and a couple mills were in there in the 50’s as well as about 200 homes, and the store.
Have no doubt methane combined with dust could very well be the answer.

“so who knows what it was pushed through”

Those who did the horizontal drilling ….. ;-)

I believe tht area was called “planer row”, Slim2229. I came to PG after that. Would some of the landfill have included wood waste from the planermills or was everything burned in beehive burners….

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@ gus – excuse me, what do you mean by “Too many mr.pg around then as well.

Sorry, but I just find your feeling that the paragraph that says “everything is okay, don’t worry” is the key paragraph a bit worrysome when we do not know the source of the methane yet.

We do not know where the soil tests were actually conducted. We do know which one(s) turned up positive for methane. We do not know whether samples were bing taken to the west around Foley Crescent which is where there is at least one residence left. They were pumping water out of a few buildings there earlier in the week.

So, my comfort level, if I were living or working there would be much higher if I knew why the statement “there is no risk to businesses or homes in the area surrounding the Lakeland site” was made.

Sorry, I am just a little less trusting and need a bit more assurance to give weight to the words.

gus brings forth a very good point, what are we doing now that will be deemed unsafe in the future? how do we recognize that and how do we act proactively so that we can limit if not stop disasters in the future? A future our children will be dealing with?

Gus all I saw down there was thousands of stacks of rough lumber, so don’t get this thing about planer row. Didn’t see any wood waste in the landfill at all, just garbage, three beehive burners and the snow was full of half burnt sawdust.
Get a chuckle out of this crap about diking, they’d have to dig down 20 feet and fill, everything seeped up through the low areas. I think methane also includes rotting vegetation gases, not only landfill gas, there could be a heck of a lot of methane underneath the ground there, those sloughs used to stink real bad, and not just because of the drunks that used to sleep it off down there.

Between the ash from the Beehive burners, the diesel spills from the Railway and Industry, and the possibilty of a landfill in the area, it is a pretty good guess, that, that area is contaminated. How could it be otherwise. To my knowledge everthing was buried over the years.

Perhaps the City should have tested the soil that was coming out from the horizontal drilling, they would have found out right away just how contaminated the soil actually is.

I notice that where the line from Lakeland meets the City line across from the old National Hotel that they have a pump, pumping the water out and down the street. Seems they are still working on this system.

This reminds me of the old saying **Let sleeping dogs lie**

Maybe insurance will cover a relocation and it can be turned into riverside parkland?

Methane with sawdust makes sense. Never for a minute thought it was sawdust alone.

slim2229

Planer row was apparently the common name for what is now River Rd.
You can look at page 23 of the linked report, the picture of the beehive burner fig 13 … the text below that.
http://princegeorge.ca/cityhall/committees/heritage/Other%20Documents/Cmte_Heritage_Cmsn_Context_Study.pdf

It is also used on old newspapers pre 1950, I would say. Basically we are seeing the remnants of the original heavy industrial area in the early days of PG.

I think it has stood the city in good stead and it is time to retire it for good. Let it slowly settle as some “green space” instead of a formal park and the next generation can decide what to do with it. If there is interest for some higher desnity housing in clusters, then let the developers reclaim the land at their cost, raise it well above the flood plain in a planned fashion and let it slowly develop over time …… or make a golf course out of it …. with a few water hazards ….. :-)

Just remember that many waterfront cities reclaim land that is actually in the adjacent water – ocean, lake, river …. give the river room to expand in an ice event, and properly improve the rest ….. Prince George, the Amsterdam or Brugge of Northern British Columbia – waterways in the summer, skating opportunities in the winter.

The planners who thought of major water features around City Hall during the Smart Growth on the Ground had the right idea … but in the wrong location.

Highlander: “gus brings forth a very good point, what are we doing now that will be deemed unsafe in the future? how do we recognize that and how do we act proactively so that we can limit if not stop disasters in the future? A future our children will be dealing with? “

Many of the same people who crapped on the environment in the old days are today’s eco-whiners who want to put a stop to everything.

You need over 5.1% by volume of methane in the air before you can get an explosion. This would seem highly unlikely that this was the cause of the explosion–it’s just too much methane to seem possible. I think Lakeland is desperate for any explanation other than dust because a dust explosion was preventable.

It would be interesting to know for how long this area has been checked for methane gas; just since the explosion or for a considerable time prior to the explosion. Of course the current high river levels and water seepage into the Lakeland property has absolutely no bearing on the methane readings right???

“Many of the same people who crapped on the environment in the old days are today’s eco-whiners who want to put a stop to everything.”

I would not put it exactly that way, but there are certainly people in this world who have open minds, learn, and change habits ….. and that works both ways.

So your point was?

Gus, thanks for the link.

Posted by: Icicle on June 22 2012 8:18 PM
You need over 5.1% by volume of methane in the air before you can get an explosion. This would seem highly unlikely that this was the cause of the explosion–it’s just too much methane to seem possible. I think Lakeland is desperate for any explanation other than dust because a dust explosion was preventable.

HUGE BUMP ICICLE.

It made my day knowing someone else on here see’s what is going on.