Thread by @Lidsville

Remember that huge landslide at the town of Old Fort in N.E. BC, a kilometre from #SiteC? Well the geohazard assessment is complete. My engineer pal says it's very well done, & more proof #SiteC is unsafe. Highlights from his remarks: (thread).. #bcpoli prrd.bc.ca/wp-content/upl…

Engineer: "there's so much info in this #OldFort slide report it would take a month just to digest it, but it tells us the basics: this is no area for a dam. #SiteC prrd.bc.ca/wp-content/upl… #bcpoli

Engineer: "What a comprehensive report - compliments to Tetra Tech. Anybody reading this would find somewhere else for a dam! They're careful to limit their work to the Old Fort slide area, so they don't make any statements about #SiteC, tho they do show it is in close proximity"

Engineer: It's amazing just how complex the geology is in this area. Even that is enough to abandon the site for #SiteC, since a dam needs a solid, competent rock formation to handle the loads imposed on it by a reservoir & operating loads when in operation & spillways are used..

Engineer: "Coupling this report w/ the 2016 KCB #SiteC report incl. test data of low compression strength & weakening of the shale from fissure water should close the book on considering this location for a dam. It also backs up all the local knowledge & cautions issued earlier..

..Engineer: "See P 14, 3.3.2.1 Geotechnical Properties Encountered at #SiteC. Info on the deteriorating shale, contrasting it with more competent shale for reference." Why is this important? Because "independent" engineer Little has compared #SiteC to Sask. shale...

Engineer: "This counters the comments from Little, I believe, that suggests shale is the same all over, referencing the dam in SK on Bearspaw shale. The properties of the material you're working must be determined by tests, not inferred by comparison with something else." #SiteC

If you need a refresher on who Tim Little is, the #SiteC "independent engineer" (ex BC Hydro insider), please have a look at @BenParfittCCPA's underrated investigation of this issue (why didn't this become a scandal?). File under fox guarding henhouse.. policynote.ca/minding-the-sh…

@BenParfittCCPA Engineer: "Given all the ignoring of geology red flags, #SiteC is clearly politically driven.

Up to now, as much as $8 billion of the dam's estimated cost has been just dealing with the weak foundation material, & we are nowhere near adding the reservoir water & operating loads"

Returning to this thread on the #OldFort landslide & #SiteC instability: I find it very interesting that TetraTech's excellent report on the landslide references so many of the diverse reports on Peace R. geology that my engineer friend has dug up over the years. Further remarks:

Engineer: I don't know how or where IntraTech found all those references they listed. Very subtly, they concentrated on Old Fort, but their report covered instability from the Attache slide to Taylor bridge, both major failures in the shale, & casually encompassing #SiteC." !!!

Engineer: "A quick scan through TetraTech's Old Fort landslide report reveals key red flags: water in lagoons & a gravel pit above Old Fort providing water access to the shale; shale that disintegrates to mud in water... cont'd #SiteC #bcpoli

..Engineer: "shear planes that can allow sliding, resulting from movement of the Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets leaving deposits; deep bedrock exists as tectonic plates with fractures (which you called fault lines in your threads on this)..." #SiteC #OldFort

..Engineer: "UBC teaches engineering geology, & this is the first instance I've seen where the two topics have been blended together as they are in nature. If this had been undertaken for #SiteC it would have saved the $10bn or so already spent, & saved the Peace Valley" #bcpoli

Engineer, in a PS: "Before #SiteC is placed in operation, & hopefully before the reservoir is filled at which point it turns into a risk to life if there is any failure, BC licensed engineers will have to sign for it & take responsibility for a safe design. Who will do that?"

(sorry, TetraTech not IntraTech)