A local resident is voicing his concerns about continual rainy day construction at a Burnaby Mountain tank farm he believes is causing increased sediment runoff to spill into a nearby creek.
John Preissl first noticed the muddy sediment a few weeks ago, when he came across construction taking place below the Kinder Morgan tank farm located at the northeast corner of Arden Avenue and Shellmont Street. Preissl, a community streamkeeper, worries that the runoff into Eagle Creek will negatively affect the salmon fry.
“I was pissed off, to tell you the truth,” he said.
Preissl said Kinder Morgan has continued to do heavy construction on the site during the rainy season for the past two years, despite being made aware of sediment concerns.
After contacting Kinder Morgan following his recent discovery, a communications coordinator for the company replied to Preissl, stating in an email that staff, “inspected the work site within the facility as well as the creek below the facility and they observed no issues with sedimentation.”
Since his complaint, Preissl said Kinder Morgan has erected two large plastic tents over the construction site to protect it from heavy rainfall. There are also sediment ponds on site designed to collect any runoff. However, Preissl believes these measures alone are not sufficient enough to protect streams and creeks from runoff during heavy rainfall.
“Every time you email Kinder Morgan, you get that kind of response. ‘Oh, there’s no problem here,’ but there is a problem,” Preissl said.
In an email statement, Trans Mountain said they addressed Preissl’s concerns and acknowledged construction had taken place in the rain.
“At the time, it was raining and storm water from the (tank farm) was being channeled through our retention basin, a procedure that meets our permit requirements and is done in an environmentally responsible manner,” said Lizette Parsons Bell, a spokesperson for Trans Mountain.
Still, Preissl believes Eagle Creek’s salmon population will continue to pay the price for rainy day construction.
“(Kinder Morgan) believe that their sediment ponds take care of this, but some of the runoff ends up in Eagle Creek, not in the pond,” he said. “Basically, (the sediment) will smother their gills and the salmon will suffocate.”
