Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart and Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts want better co-ordination from B.C. Hydro on emergency planning to deal with disasters like Monday’s toppling of two transmission towers along the Fraser River.
About 25,000 people were temporarily without power and a big chunk of the Lower Mainland was essentially cut in half, north separated from south, when the Port Mann Bridge, the TransCanada Highway and the Lougheed Highway had to be shut down because of the crisis.
But while Watts had Hydro officials working on the south side of the Fraser, where the two towers had fallen, Coquitlam was literally left in the dark, said Stewart.
“Our emergency planning team was running blind for part of the evening, waiting for Hydro to leave the south shore and come to the north shore where the remaining risks were,” said Stewart.
“The risk to the other end of the line [on the Coquitlam side] needed better co-ordination,” said Stewart, who was up all night at his city’s emergency centre dealing with the situation.
He’s particularly upset that B.C. Hydro did not inform Coquitlam of any problems with the towers even though he was subsequently advised the crown corporation started studying the situation a week before.
“[Hydro] had a week of warning that there was some issue with this massive transmission system,” said Stewart. “They didn’t tell us the risk was there. Had we known of the risk, we could have jointly developed plans to manage the risk.
“Our residents deserved better, I think. They deserved to have Hydro let our emergency team know of the risks.”
David Lebeter, B.C. Hydro’s vice-president of field operations and safety, said Tuesday Hydro was caught “completely by surprise” by the collapse of the first tower, which pulled down a neighbouring tower.
Lebeter said the first collapse was likely caused by “increased and unexpected erosion along the Fraser River” although he said there had been no indication of erosion at the tower in question.
“We weren’t concerned with that tower going over.”
The massive high-voltage tower, located on the south bank west of the Port Mann Bridge, collapsed at around 8:30 Monday night. According to Lebeter, the force of the falling tower pulled down a second tower and snapped several wooden hydro poles in the area.
The collapsed power lines caused widespread traffic delays, with Highways 1, 7, 7B and other roads closed until Tuesday morning. Crews “de-energized” the downed power lines, but they remained strewn across roads, residential neighbourhoods and the nearby CN Rail yard Tuesday.
B.C. Hydro also shut down marine traffic on the Fraser River through Tuesday, blocking barges and recreational boats from the area as crews worked to remove power lines and conductors from the water.
Despite Hydro’s statement that erosion was not seen as an issue for the tower that fell, the corporation recently dealt with erosion-related issues in the area.
On July 1, Hydro sent crews to a tower 50 metres upstream from the collapsed tower to try to stabilize the lopsided structure. They used ropes to tie back the tower and filled the surrounding riverbed with rocks to prevent further erosion.
“We did a temporary fix and that tower hasn’t moved since,” Lebeter said.
B.C. Hydro crews also spent three days surveying the riverbeds near both towers, estimated to be between 30 and 40 years old.
“We were monitoring both towers very carefully. The situation developed really quickly,” Lebeter said, pointing to rising water levels on the Fraser River as the potential cause of rapid erosion and ultimately, the tower’s collapse.
But according to Jeremy Venditti, a Simon Fraser University geographer who studies water flow on the Fraser River, the “surprise” tower collapse would not have come as a shock to B.C. Hydro if they conducted more thorough studies of the river’s movement.
“There should have been more monitoring of what’s going on with the river channel,” he said. “There was more danger here.”
Venditti said this year’s high water levels could “lead up to the potential for very rapid erosion around infrastructure.” But though the tower’s collapse could have been a “snap event,” it was not inevitable, he said.
“It is a difficult event to predict,” Venditti said, “but if had they been doing more detailed mapping along the river, they probably would have seen some changes in the flow patterns.”
Lebeter said B.C. Hydro will not decide how to fix the felled hydro towers until safety assessments and cleanup are completed.
He also said crews will be examining other towers along the side of the Fraser River “just to make sure.
“We’re not worried, but we’re going to take a look,” Lebeter said.
Mayor Stewart said he was advised that Hydro was aware of erosion problems a week ago.
“We were advised last night [Monday] at about four in the morning that the 500 kV line that was next to the one that collapsed was actually shut down a week ago because the tower was standing on three of its four legs,” said Stewart. “The fourth leg had been undermined by erosion.
“Coquitlam wasn’t notified. That astounds me, that they [Hydro] don’t have a protocol to notify the adjacent community.”
Mayor Watts also wanted “better co-ordination” between Hydro and the communities it serves.
“I think in the future there are a number of things that can happen,” she said. “I think there needs to be an analysis of the infrastructure.
“I think we have to have a look at the stability of the foreshore,” added Watts. “I think we have to make sure there are proper protocols in place whereby the city is advised [of problems] in terms of our engineering department.”
Watts hoped lessons will be learned from the situation.
“The best thing is to have a look at it and see how we could respond better and have a more co-ordinated effort,” she said.
One of the few positives from the experience is that the tons of metal in the towers didn’t fall on homes, business or commuters on the freeway or Port Mann. But the risks were there for that to happen, said Stewart.
“It was easily the biggest potential disaster that Coquitlam has seen in terms of potential property loss but also potential lives lost,” he said.
Stewart stopped short of calling for an inquiry into the situation.
“I don’t think that it’s an inquiry [that’s required],” he said. “Municipalities need better answers. We need a better protocol to keep us informed when infrastructure is undermined or at some risk.”
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