One could be tempted to say that the power went off “as usual”, but that would perhaps be a bit harsh. On the other hand we’ve had a lot of power outages lately. Today it was only off for 1 hour and 45 minutes, which coincidentally was the same length of time it was off the other day. The times that it goes off for only a few seconds and then comes back on with an electronics damaging surge should also be mentioned.

And we all remember a couple of months ago when it went off for most of the day and we all froze, went without water, and for the most part were unable to communicate with the rest of the world. That was actually an excusable situation because of extreme weather. What excuses Fortis can cook up for all the other situations is beyond me. I suppose this is just one of the side effects of them selling electricity to us at such a low price that they don’t have enough money to do basic maintenance. Perhaps we should take up a collection to help them out.   ~ Ole Juul

Perhaps a knock-on effect from Friday’s telephone disaster, but the phones were out today as well. The blackout was only three hours in the middle of the day, but that’s still well beyond what is generally considered acceptable in the 21st Century. Telus purports to “continually upgrade to better meet our needs“, though with the level of education that kids are getting these days, I suppose one could excuse them for not fully understanding the meaning of the word “better”.

Sarcasm aside, what we saw today did indeed show that Telus does not want the world to know what they are doing here. The lines went dead around 2:25 p.m. Checking the Telus Home Services Outages web page still showed nothing up until four o’clock or so. One could assume that Tulameen (the only near choice there) was not effected. However, a little while later, there it was. Click on “Current outages” and the area (though not Coalmont) was listed.

The phones came back on before 6 p.m. Not long thereafter, if one clicked on the “Resolved outages” link there was nothing there. What is particularly interesting is that right underneath it says “If you no longer see your outage here, we resolved the issue more than 24 hours ago.”  Oh really?

This outage was listed for a couple of hours, with not even a nod to Coalmont, and taken off right away. Clearly Telus doesn’t want the world to know that there is a problem here.

It gets worse than that. As mentioned many times before, most people have no alternate ability to call the phone company when the lines break. Nevertheless, Telus suggests that one “call 310-2255 to inform us of your service interruption“. What is particularly interesting is that these 310 numbers are only reliable within the company that owns them. You often can’t call them from another service such as a cell or other phone. Adding an area code will sometimes work, but likely not.

There is, however, a number for general use which can be used. Try (888) 811-2323 and after going through a lot of menus, you will end up talking to a real, and polite, person. Unfortunately you won’t be connected to the repair service. The best this agent can do is file a report. How quickly that gets picked up by the relevant repair people is unknown, but the agent will try very hard to set up an appointment to have someone come out to look at your telephone next week. Apparently people’s telephones are very interesting and they have technicians who enjoy looking at them. It is impossible to tell a Telus agent that the cable which supplies connection to this town has been pulled up by the snow plow again.

This is not looking good. In fact, Telus is not looking good. I made some effort to get a telephone number which would lead to a service centre where they could address broken lines immediately. It was my hope to be useful to both Telus and this community. As it turns out, the people at Telus were unable to give me such a number. After first giving me one which turns out to be wildly wrong, they consulted with others in the office and came up with a number which they thought might work – it didn’t.

Putting all this together, it becomes clear that although they have pleasant and polite people manning the front desk, Telus as a company has questionable intentions. They don’t want to hear from us. And they don’t want anybody else to know what is going on here. If Coalmontians are to have regular telephone service such as we’ve had for the better part of a century, it’s looking like Telus isn’t a company who can do that. As for 24/7 access to 911. Forget it.

~ Ole Juul

Rumours and conflicting reports are muddying the waters after coal mine spill turns river black. We need to talk.

We’ve been waiting to get information about what is happening with the Tulameen River water. There’s a lot of very angry people and it would be appropriate for the Coalmont Energy Corporation to tell them what is going on. Especially since it’s been two days and the story is starting to circulate elsewhere. Notably, Global News has a story with facts which are different from what we know here. What is going on?

Global reports that there was a failure of “a coal mine tailings pond” but earlier information from the mine indicates that they are not using a tailings pond at all. (see story) Processing water is being recycled and all they do is top it up. The pond is there from the previous company, Compliance Coal, and is not being used now. On the other hand Keith Meldrum of CEC is reported as having said that the spill was caused by a malfunction at their new plant. Failure of a tailings pond is indeed a malfunction, but if they’re not using it then wouldn’t the cause lie elsewhere – like somebody doing something they shouldn’t have? So now we have more questions than we had before.

According to Global, Meldrum said that the effect was believed to be mostly visual and that there was minimal impact. This is likely true, but telling the residents of Coalmont about this would be a welcome gesture. We are the people who’s daily lives are potentially impacted by this spill.

Meldrum is also reported to have said that the tailings are not toxic because the Blakeburn coal doesn’t contain sulfur or blasting contaminates. Was he not told that they’ve been blasting lately? Besides, without reference, this seems like a bold statement. The current plant is designed to be very clean, and is presumably a known factor, but the tailings pond is left over from a previous company with unsophisticated processing, and who knows what they could have left behind.

The handling of this event is disappointing. From the public relations standpoint, it does not look like there is a commitment to openness. Bringing in an outsider like Meldrum to talk about it, someone who apparently lags behind contemporary wisdom of how to do damage control when a mistake is made, only makes the situation worse. To CEC’s credit however, it should be mentioned that they were the first ones to call the Ministry Of Environment. Brad Hope, our Area ‘H’ representative, commented that “I would have been really uncomfortable if it has been someone else – good for them.”

Apparently Interior Health also does’t know we exist. Their reported statement that there are no wells within 18 km is a jaw dropper. Why would they say that? We’re all on wells in this community and it is a narrow valley so everything is close to the river. Some people have a well within a few feet of the Tulameen and they in particular would like some reassurance about their water. It is worrying that we’re invisible to the government authority which is charged with regulating the safety of drinking water in this province.

In any case, considering the current mood here, leaving Coalmontians out of the picture could well be a bad move. My guess is that it might serve the CEC’s public image well if there was some sort of communication aimed at the people whose lives are directly effected. In fact, the sooner the better, before any more damage is done. §

As an Area H resident who has spent some time gathering and disseminating factual information about the Princeton Aquatic Centre Project, it has come to my attention that some people don’t quite understand what is wrong with the Referendum. Everybody gets to vote and that’s democracy – right?

No it is not. There is more to democracy than just having an opportunity to vote. The outcome of the vote should be representative of what most people would like, and people need to know what they’re voting for. In this case the voting is set up in such a way that Area H will be very poorly represented by any outcome.

Of course almost everybody is in favour of having an aquatic facility, regardless of where they live or whether they will make use of it or not. The arguments start when we discuss cost and who will pay for it. That is what the referendum is about – not if we want a pool.

Let me start by pointing out that if everybody in Area H votes “no”, and everybody in Princeton votes “yes”, then the referendum passes. That is because there are more voters in that town. Another disparity is that there are many, possibly eight times, as many people in Princeton who won’t pay the tax, regardless of the outcome. They probably won’t object to an aquatic centre.

But the question is, why is Area H involved to begin with? Five years ago the statistically rising median age was 56 years and there are very few children. Add the fact that 46% don’t live here and come mostly in the summer to enjoy outdoor activities, and it becomes clear that the demographic is not likely to be one that will participate much in any indoor aquatic activities taking place in a neighbouring municipality. Especially if it involves spending an hour in a car.

Regardless, if this passes and we have to pay for a pool then the people in Princeton, who arguably have better access to this proposed facility, would only be paying 39% of the cost. This referendum simply does not ensure a match of the benefits and costs which is legally required in regional districts. If you care about the democratic process you will want Area H to vote for themselves and if you are also a resident there – you will demand it.

~ Ole Juul

Home septic systems are always a concern in our town. Clearly, everyone needs to get rid of their sewage, but nowadays there are different systems for doing that. At the recent meeting of Coalmont residents with the regional director, Brad Hope, there were some interesting questions raised, and some even more interesting answers.

Regarding this subject, the opening question was “What rights do we have regarding the Cottages of Coalmont?” As everyone knows, this is a proposal for 24 seasonal homes on 26 lots. That was a hot topic, and as it turned out, Brad had already done some research on it. He had determined that the rules regarding septic systems had changed recently. Yes, again. Continue reading Septic Skeptic →