Monday, June 20, 2016

Flooded British Columbia towns in shale gas heartland declare state of emergency






By Reuters
Posted June 18, 2016, at 8:41 a.m.

VANCOUVER — Intense flooding has prompted two northern communities in the Canadian province of British Columbia to declare states of emergency, just a month after intense forest fires prompted evacuations in the region.

The city of Dawson Creek, which sits atop the gas rich Montney formation, declared a state of emergency on Friday, a day after heavy rain washed out bridges, flooded sewers and forced some 60 people from their homes, the mayor said.

“It was a crazy, crazy couple of days,” Mayor Dale Bumstead said, adding that the rain had stopped and the town’s focus was now on assessing the damage and rebuilding.

The town of Chetwynd, some 62 miles west of Dawson Creek, declared a state of emergency on Wednesday.

Both communities are south of Fort St. John, the hub city for British Columbia’s energy industry. Pembina Pipeline shut its crude-carrying Western Pipeline on Thursday, after rain and erosion exposed a portion of the line.

It was not immediately clear if other energy companies had been affected by the flooding. Bumstead said that while major highways around the city were damaged by the rain, workers could still access nearby energy projects using back roads.

In May, a handful of small communities north of Fort St. John were evacuated as intense wildfires tore through northeast British Columbia.