Lots of #SiteC intel coming in. As we learned earlier, there's a huge drill on site. Contractor Henry Drilling is boring holes 100' deep & 9' in diameter at the spillways & generating station. We wonder if it's a last ditch attempt to stop structure moving via "shear keys"..
But it raises the Q why work ever continued during the review of #SiteC by Peter Milburn (whose report should come out soon, tho we have no idea what its terms of reference are or if public will ever be able to see it in its entirety). Horgan did this with the BCUC review too.
.If the Milburn review is looking at whether #SiteC can be fixed at all, why is over $100m still being spent a month on the project? Is this a review in good faith? The fact Horgan didn't call for a tools down during the BCUC review either is causing many to feel deja vu. #bcpoli
Here is the explanation of how shear keys work: (see whole thread) #SiteC #bcpoli
New messages from engineers & constructions experts today who've worked in the area & are familiar with the cohesionless Peace River shale. All independently said same thing: digging deep holes worsens the risk; can introduce water into the deep shale, which destroys its strength
"...they still can't get it! This shale reacts to water and destroys itself. Filling the holes with concrete, if that's their plan, does nothing but add weight unless they find solid rock base down there..."
..."The only possible way to use this shale for a foundation [or shear key] is to drive steel friction piles into it. The concrete they need to support would overload these piles, and there is no way to place them under the concrete now, even if they wanted to..."
Final note: not only has BC Hydro never built on material like this shale, but neither has any of the engineering corps they've contracted to build #SieC. No other earthfill dam of this size has been built on shale this bad anywhere, as far as we know, & def not in an L shape.
Engineers & construction friends add that we really don't know what they're planning with these holes & BC Hydro isn't saying, so who knows. Given the famous secrecy around #SiteC, all we can do is guess. "But it should've been game over as soon as movement was found on the site"

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More from @Lidsville

27 Nov
T minus 1 minute! There may be room left in this webinar - please join. #SiteC #bcpoli
..I'm going to semi-livetweet this #SiteC webinar. Chief Roland Willson of West Moberly First Nations @dunnezaman is speaking first. Site C will drown the last portion of valley on the Peace River - everything else has been submerged by previous dams... #bcpoli Image
@dunnezaman ..Treaty 8 promised would be "no forced interference" in hunting and fishing rights - Chief Willson is showing a map animation showing the sheer quantity of imposed dev't in their region. This is "forced interference" - and #SiteC is unnecessary interference... Image
Read 38 tweets
24 Nov
How BC feels right now
#currentmood #SiteC #CovidBC #bcpoli #cdnpoli
941 cases today
New cases vs # of new tests in the last day in 4 provinces:
BC: 941 cases, 11,037 tests
Alberta: 1,115 cases, 13,576 tests
Ontario: 1,009 cases, 27,053 tests
Quebec: 1,164 cases, (test # still n/a, but they do between 20-35K tests a day
quebec.ca/en/health/heal…
#COVID19BC #bcpoli
Read 5 tweets
30 Oct
"Suspect timing for latest update on problematic holes at #SiteC" - @VaughnPalmer

"Opinion: Sooner or later the public and ratepayers will discover what BC Hydro and the NDP have been hiding all these months" vancouversun.com/opinion/column… #bcpoli
@VaughnPalmer ..This BCUC Q to BC Hydro is esp. interesting: "Discuss which geotechnical studies were used to inform the initial design of the powerhouse, spillway & dam core foundations.” Interesting that BCUC would go back that far - possibly as far back as 2010-11 design of L-shaped dam
@VaughnPalmer I'm chatting with my engineer pal right now and he's saying "No idea how BC Hydro can answer these q's. Anything they say will create more q's, & they will have to come up with design data & input values for all the parameters used in the calculations.." cont'd
Read 15 tweets
29 Oct
This is quite fascinating. The @BCUtilitiesCom watchdog is doing its best to get straight answers out of @bchydro which is, yet again, late to file key reports on #SiteC. Not surprising, given the instability on site. Thread of BCUC's Qs to BC Hydro. I'm glad I'm not BCH: #bcpoli
@BCUtilitiesCom @bchydro BCUC's questions to BC Hydro:
1.6
"Please discuss to what extent foundation construction activities continued after geotechnical risks materialized on the right [south] bank"
Translation: how much did you build on the south bank after it started sliding?
bcuc.com/Documents/Proc…
@BCUtilitiesCom @bchydro ..1.9
"Please identify when the Project Assurance Board was first made aware of potential geotechnical issues in the powerhouse, spillway or dam core areas."
Translation: when did you tell your fake "oversight" body about the stability problems in everything you've built so far?
Read 6 tweets
27 Oct
A reminder of how undemocratic & unrepresentative First Past the Post is: We had very low turnout in #BCElxn2020: 52% voted.

NDP got 45% of the votes of that 52% who voted. So with the support of 26% of registered voters, Horgan gets a "landslide" majority. #bcpoli And...
..Here's the comparison by Fair Vote Canada showing how people voted vs how many seats were won: fairvote.ca/2020/10/25/bc-… #bcpoli #BCelxn2020 Image
..And one final note: voter turnout is lower in jurisdictions with First Past the Post because so many know their votes don't count. These "safe ridings" don't exist under Pro Rep. I live in the safest riding in BC; many here didn't bother to vote. fairvote.ca/factcheckvoter…
Read 6 tweets
22 Oct
Let's do NDP highlights, starting with:
When NDP took power they kept a right-wing, BC Lib-appointed top bureaucrat in the Energy Ministry, conspiracy theory fan Dave Nikolesjin. Recently they replaced him with more far-right Fazil Mihlar of the Fraser Institute. #BCElection2020
..Next up, & related: NDP give us 79% increase in fossil fuel subsidies over BC Lib levels, a significant rise in fracking (incl right near #SiteC & other dams), & signing off on a militarized raid on #Wetsuweten to protect #CoastalGasLink in a climate crisis. #bcelxn2020 #bcpoli
.."Natural gas" is fracked methane, the potent GHG. Also on NDP's gas file, the #LNGCanada project, an uneconomic house of cards in which we forego royalties but are left paying for the damage & transmission lines etc. "LNG is a Losing Bet": thetyee.ca/News/2020/10/2… #bcelxn2020
Read 18 tweets

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