Last spring I arrived for a jog at Squint Lake Park, by the golf course at the foot of Burnaby Mountain. I found a protest going on, the primary intent of which was to sing protest songs. Inquiring as to who's in charge led to several rebuffs by the group of female singers who evidently serve as today's shushing corporate counterparts to Russian broom-wielding babushkas.
I was handed a song sheet and informed, by a bearded gentleman, that I could contact, online, the group that was named on the protest sign in a photograph within the song sheet.
I had wanted to impart the story about the water pipe rupture that I had seen, some time prior, on the north shoulder of the road right beside the Kinder Morgan property.
Song sheet in my pocket, I embarked on the jog and started up Shellmont Street along Kinder Morgan's aptly representative Trans Mountain Trail. Evidently the singing protest group had previously marched down this trail. At the point where the creek crosses over the trail there was an amazing sight: an attractive young woman holding up a little frog. I immediately thought: "I've never seen a more obvious shill in my life." She was right out of Disney.
The water rupture had been repaired but its occurrence, on this particular jog, made me take more academic notice of the many huge subduction craters amidst the tree-lined Trans Mountain Trail. They were of various huge sizes, some up to 20 feet, some around trees, and they peppered the strip of forested landscape. I stopped counting at 20.
Subduction craters are caused by fluids travelling under the earth, eroding the substructure, causing the cave-in.
When I returned home I emailed the "protest" organization about all the subduction craters. I don't recall the name of the group but believe that they were of Kinder Morgan origin.
In the days that followed many subduction craters were filled quickly and underground pipes were freshly marked above ground. The fresh soil has a "sandy" tactile quality and it was seeded.
Today these crater repairs are marked by the fresh, shiny new grass that distinguishes itself from its more natural surroundings because of its shiny homogeneity. By next spring there will be other plants sprouting amongst the new blades.
From protest to repairs, and now the chainsaw massacre of our park land, this is quite a performance by Kinder Morgan.
The true end of the story for Kinder Morgan, the real story, has a happy ending:
There is a new Quantum Energy Generator (QEG) designed by Tesla, crowdfunded, opensourced, that is now being built by teams of engineers around the world.
China is going full steam ahead with them and it appears unstoppable by the big energy interests.
The energy industry is about to undergo a revolution.
Marty Ozols is the former publisher of The Coffee Chronicles in New Westminster and is now writes a blog titled: The Martyan Chronicles.
