The company needs to install a helicopter staging area and drill two holes on Burnaby Mountain to take soil samples for further study. The work was originally scheduled to wrap up by the end of September. Kinder Morgan says it has cut seven trees, while the City of Burnaby says 13.
(See descriptions below for details of the work.)
1. Proposed borehole HMM-BH-01: Site is in the woods, 100 metres off Gnome’s Home Trail. The hole will be four to six inches in diameter and 312 metres deep. Kinder Morgan needs an overhead clearing of roughly 20 by 20 metres to lower equipment in by helicopter, while the ground clearing will measure eight by 10 metres. The site was chosen because there was a bit of a natural clearing to begin with.
According to Kinder Morgan, seven trees were cut so far at this site, which the company says were in “health decline” and deemed dangerous. City parks staff are stationed at this site to keep watch and enforce city bylaws if Kinder Morgan resumes work.
2. Proposed borehole HMM-BH-02: Site is in a parking lot on the side of Centennial Way. Kinder Morgan anticipates needing half the parking lot and clearing one tree. The hole will be four to six inches in diameter and 250 metres deep. One tree will need to be cut.
3. Helicopter staging area: No helicopters will actually land in the conservation area. This area will be used to lift equipment over to bore hole area 1, and then lowered into the woods without actually landing.
