Brink Forest Products Boss Would Like to Know What's Going On

Thursday, December 13, 2007 02:23 PM

Brink Forest Products under water, and off work because of flooding

“I have checked the Emergency Measures Site, I have bought an emergency kit, I have the bottle of water and the flash light, now would someone tell me what is going on?”

Those are the comments of John Brink of Brink Forest Products who has seen his operation shut down as a result of the flooding of the NechakoRiver in the area of his business."Bob Simpson , the NDP MLA dropped by yesterday" Brink said , "but I have yet to hear from anyone in the city, the Province or any other organization, other than someone calling to say that it wasn’t his department that was involved in this flood."

"What are we doing, what have we considered doing to eliminate this problem, have we learned anything,?" Brink says those are all questions he would like answered. Instead he says "I read in the media that we will just have to wait until it gets warm and the ice melts. "

"Who for example makes the decision about whether we should cut a path around the jam to allow the water to flow?Who makes the decision if we should use explosives to break the jam? Who’s the person that makes the decision that we all should sit around and wait for the weather to warm up? That’s what I want to know."

Brink is not happy, "All these people, and I would like to know what they are doing, if anything."

Earlier today the Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Alberta, Dr Faye Hicks, said so little is known of the affects of adding a large amount of water into a river system that is forming major frazzle ice on the bottom of the river during extreme cold that it is very hard to say what may have caused the flood on the Nechako in Prince George.

Dr Hicks says there has been very little study done in this regard to see what the frazzle (anchor ice) does when you add a major increase in flow of water." Does an additional large flow of water entered into the system have an affect, very likely", but she added "I would be hard pressed to say how much without a proper study of the issue. There is so little knowledge available right now on the problem that you have in your flood ."

The last flood that occurred on the Nechako River took place during the winter of 1997 at around the same time when Alcan ( Rio Tinto) released a major flow of water into the Skins Lake spillway causing an ice jam to form in Prince George with the result of a flood along the North Nechako. This time around the ice jam formed near the confluence of the Nechako and the Fraser River.

Alcan increased the discharge from the Skins Lake by more than 300% on or about November 22 the company increased its flows from the spillway from 15 cubic meters per second to 84 cubic meters per second. Some flooding has been reported in Vanderhoof.

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Posted on Thursday, December 13, 2007 02:23 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: giterdun on December 13 2007 4:05 PM

JOHN BRINK..."WHAT IS GOING ON"
IN MY OPINION-- NOTHING.... ALCAN DOES NOT GIVE A S41T, LARSON THE FLOOD BOSS IS OVER HIS HEAD, AND THE CITY DOESN'T HAVE A CLUE. LONG REACH BACK HOES OR CABLE CRANE DRAGLINES SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON THE SITE 4 DAYS AGO. WHEN A RIVER STARTS TO ICE UP AND MASSIVE ICE FLOWS ARE COMING DOWN STREAM, IT DOESN'T TAKE A GENIUS TO FIGURE OUT WHAT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. THIS PROBLEM COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED IF ACTION WAS TAKEN AT THE BEGINNING. UNFORTUNATELY THE JAM IS SO BIG NOW IT MIGHT BE TOO LATE BUT SOMETHING SHOULD AT LEAST BE ATTEMPTED. ENOUGH FLYING OVER, ASSESSING AND STUDYING. IT'S TIME TO MAKE A DECISION AND GET TO WORK.

Posted by: Palopu on December 13 2007 4:57 PM

We had this amount of water and more before the Kenny Dam was built, and we had problems with ice backing up on the Nechako. Seems to me a major part of the solution was to ensure that the Channels running into the Fraser were clear and deep. They also took action immediatley to blow the ice if necessary to keep the water moving.

I suspect that there has been no dredging of the channels running into the Fraser since the Kenny Dam was built. As a consequence of the lower water levels sediment has been building for 40 years. This of course has restricted the areas where the water can go, and also allows more areas for ice to become grounded.

Most Government workers and Politicians have difficulty tying their shoes, and sweeping their porches, so I dont see why we would expect them to solve this problem.

The statement **We will just have to let the River run its course** pretty well sums it up for the politicians.

A 50% reduction in Government workers, and Politicians, with the balance on a 90 day probation period would be a good beginning. These people have been living the good life at taxpayers expense far to long. Its time we got some return on our investment.

As Lee Iococco said **Where have all the leaders gone**

Posted by: Palopu on December 13 2007 6:52 PM

Right of the money Eagle (1).

If this water continues to rise it will run across the CN yard and down to the East end of 1st Avenue, it will then run back into the Fraser through the South West end of the Yellowhead Bridge..If the weather turns cold again this could be the new river route until spring. Once 1st Avenue is flooded the Yellowhead Bridge is toast.

This has the potential of being a huge disaster.

Posted by: Palopu on December 13 2007 6:56 PM

Come in Eagle (1) come in Over

Posted by: NMG on December 13 2007 9:03 PM

�I have checked the Emergency Measures Site, I have bought an emergency kit, I have the bottle of water and the flash light, now would someone tell me what is going on?�

I'll take a shot. There is a HUGE PILE of ice stuck in the Nechako River, with nowhere for it to go. The flow of the river is severely backed up and it's flooding, probably just like it has at other times in the history of the river.

I'd hazard a guess that the sheer volume of ice makes physical removal all but impossible. Do people honestly believe that there wouldn't be efforts underway to rectify the situation, if they were determined to be feasible?

As an aside, how many people on Opinion 250 have experience in clearing ice jams the size of the one on the Nechako? I'd hazard a guess that number would be zilch.

Posted by: owl on December 13 2007 11:49 PM

"how many people on Opinion 250 have experience in clearing ice jams the size of the one on the Nechako? I'd hazard a guess that number would be zilch."

Ledt me see ...... river ..... winter ..... frozen water ...... ice jam .....

who here thinks that we are the only place in BC with these conditions?? .... how about Canada?? ...... how about North America???? ...... the world ...... ???????

http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/library/technicalnotes/TN05-5.pdf

The bridge which was in place before the current Nechako River Bridge (Cameron St. Bridge) was taken out by ice some 75+ years ago!!! .... this is not the first flood we had ..!!!!.

So why has no one ever looked at a more permanent solution over the years??

Why has no one ever looked to better preparation in case a jam should happen again???

How many more times does it take before someone will get off their butt??

Hey, wait!!! Isn�t this the place people keep building polluting factories in the valley instead of far away on the plateau???

The place which takes 4.5 days to clear snow off the streets after a snow fall????

I see ... now it all fits ..... why would anyone expect that such a place would build a proper dyking system for those spring floods ... or an ice weir to reduce the chances of ice dams ..... how stupid of us�..

;-)

Posted by: Palopu on December 14 2007 9:12 PM

It was nine days before I got plowed, the first time. Still waiting for number 2.

Insofar as the ice situation goes, the City, and Province should have gotten their first hint when this happened in 1997. They got lucky that time, and I guess they thought they would get lucky this time, however it didnt turn out that way.

You dont have to be a genius to figure out that the confluence of the Fraser River and Nechako River needs some serious dredging. Considering the fact that dredging is done all over the world, and on Major Rivers in the USA, plus Major rivers in Europe, and of course the Fraser River Delta. The Panama Canal is dredged on a regular basis.

Why would anyone think that you could just ignore this situation for 40 years, and not have any consequences. We no longer have people in business or Government who understand what responsibility, preventative maintenance, or long term planning means.

As an example the CN Steel Bridge across the Fraser up until the 1970's used to be sand blasted every 5 years or so, and the bolts were replaced or tightened, and the bridge received a new coat of paint to stop it from rusting. To the best of my knowledge this has not happened for the last 20/30 years. Why? Because those in charge defer maintenance so that they can show a bigger profit. CN has hundreds of steel bridges across Canada, and maintenance is a huge cost.

Insofar as the Rivers go I suspect that no one even knows who is in charge of what, let alone what needs to be done, and who can do it, however they can tell you the present status of the gambling casino's, how much money they will get from the gas tax, how much from RCMP tickets, Teresan Gas, etc;, They can give you an update on the Performing Arts Centre, but for some reason they have trouble with roads, paving, garbage, water and sewer, etc;

Simply put we have lost our way.