Weekend road closures looming; Teck doing groundwater assessment
By Kyra Hoggan
Traffic issues may abound in Trail this weekend, with both the city and Teck announcing pending road closures.
First, the City of Trail sent a release indicating lower Glover Road from Green Avenue to Victoria Street will be closed until Aug. 15.
“There will be no entry or exit for all pedestrian and vehicles, with the exception of emergency vehicles,” the release reads. “A detour will be clearly marked; please obey all posted information signage and traffic control personnel in the area of construction.
“The City of Trail is replacing aging underground infrastructure as a component of the Victoria St Corridor project. The City of Trail apologizes for any inconvenience that the proposed work may cause and will endeavor to complete the work as soon as possible. “
Meanwhile, Teck issued a release today saying they’ll be doing groundwater testing in the downtown Trail area from Aug. 9 through to Aug. 11.
“As a result of this work, road closures will take place through each block affected, including parking stalls,” it said. “All traffic adjustments will be clearly signed. All sidewalks will remain open and businesses will remain accessible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and are communicating directly with adjacent businesses to mitigate disturbances as much as possible.”
Company spokesperson Catherine Adair said the assessment began in 2001, when Teck discovered the groundwater underneath the operation had been impacted by historic Teck activities.
“The overall groundwater assessment has been underway since 2001, and since then we have been working to better understand the scope and impacts of this issue,” she said. “In 2012, Teck submitted our final remediation plan to Environment Canada, and we are now putting that plan into action. It’s important to note that the groundwater in question is not used for drinking and fish populations are not affected by it. However, we take these issues very seriously and are committed to responsible environmental management.”
Adair said more details on the overall groundwater assessment can be found here:
“The groundwater testing work we will be undertaking Aug 9-11 in the downtown area is a part of the final remediation plan, and will help us identify any potential impacts to groundwater along the shore of the Columbia River,” she added.
A drill rig will be used to drill down to the groundwater table and install monitoring wells. Samples will be collected from these monitoring wells and sent to a laboratory for analysis. The locations are chosen based on accessibility, and to be representative of the groundwater flow patterns. The drilling takes about a half day per well.
There will be five drilling locations:
1. Fortis Parking Lot at east end of Farwell St.
2. Farwell St. outside Kootenay Saving Insurance
3. Alleyway behind Riverbelle restaurant between Eldorado and Spokane St.
4. Eldorado St. in front of CIBC between Bay and Cedar Ave.
5. Pine Ave. just south of Farwell St.
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