Did Eco Tcehnologies Do The Job? Of Course

By Ben Meisner

If there was any doubt as to the success of the Eco Technologies machine in breaking up the ice jam on the lower reaches of the Nechako it can be illustrated in the river course as it passes into the Fraser River. Will the machine ,operated by Paul Laplante from New Brunswick, receive the accolades that it should? That will be largely up to the ice experts and the engineers involved in the flood.  The accolades should not be held back for the price of pride?

Make no mistake, the machine did its job.  Why the city continued to talk about the length of the jam seems rather strange. The cold temperatures froze the river; the area of concern near the confluence of the Fraser was opened by the efforts of Paul Laplante’s crew under extremely cold temperatures.

While the warm water treatment may keep that area of the river open, the fact that the channel is now carving its own new course into the Fraser will auger well in the spring when the river rises.

We may have spent $4 million so far on the flood, but the money spent with Eco Technologies was worth every cent. The only remaining item to now be looked at is to seek out the advice of Laplante who says he would like to see a new machine designed to break up ice,  something much bigger than the one he  brought to this city.

With the Province already into 4 million dollars in flood expenditures, it would make perfect sense to look at the equipment Eco Technologies uses with a view to having this piece of equipment in this province waiting for an event such as the one that took place earlier this winter. Had we put the equipment to work early on in the flooding, you can bet the flood bill would be no where near where it stands today.

The only road block standing in its way will be the engineers involved in assisting the city admitting that they missed the boat, and a young housewife in PG solved the problem. That would mean accepting the fact, and ego tends to get in the way.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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