Poles in place for the 130 KV line from the Merritt Substation to the Highland Valley
Photo KDG
Work is well progressed on 130 KV line.
On this day: March 18th 1896
Lord Stanley donates his silver cup to the best annual hockey team.
Category: Government Works
A happy job stewart talks to us at the start of the 3rd 500 KV line near Merritt. Photo KDG
You may be miffed that the BC government takes a dividend from hydro when its supposed to be a non profit and delivering power at a rate that reflects your equal standing as a citizen in British Columbia now that dividend may be more attractive when a low snow pack creates less generating capsity then in other year. Putting pressure on that dividend against a reasonable rate. Is it a tax? It is against the mixed economy concept that is supposed to undergird our free system of profit driven business. Here’s what hydro is saying about the snow pack:
Lower-level snowpack is way below normal in many areas across province
No snow on the North Shore mountains. Mount Washington closed to skiing for the season. A record high temperature of 14°C at Vancouver airport a month after Christmas. What’s going on here? And what does it mean to 2015 water levels in B.C., including BC Hydro’s reservoirs? To answer those questions, and to take a deeper dive into the effects of climate change, we sat down with BC Hydro meteorologist Tim Ashman, author of a popular in-house weather blog that goes out to more than 1,000 BC Hydro employees. A member of BC Hydro’s hydrology and technical services team, Ashman agrees that this has been a weird winter in B.C. “It’s been unusual in B.C. and in much of Western North America,” he says. “It’s been warm quite consistently, pretty much all winter, with only a couple exceptions.” What makes the winter of 2014-2015 so unusual is just how warm and wet it has been compared to other so-called El Nino years. We had one in 2009-2010 during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, but that winter was largely dry. Not this time around, because this El Nino year is different. “All of our storm cycles have been warm,” he says. “And that’s had a significant effect on our snowpacks. We’ve had to deal with water runoff instead of storage into the snowpack. At elevations where we’re generally storing snow at this time of year, we’ve seen runoff.” That runoff was significant enough that BC Hydro was forced to spill water at several dams, notably in the Campbell River system. Meanwhile, a rainy October in the north recharged ground water and increased streamflows into BC Hydro’s largest reservoir, Williston, in what amounted to an unusual, but welcome, pre-winter influx of water heading into the peak season for electricity demand.
Maybe rain will come maybe taxs will go up. What ever comes we still have a lot of good people and an enduring community to increase our quality of life come what may. You may take this serous enough to do that solar project you have put off. On this day: March 5th 1975 The first meeting of the home brew computer club.
For more from hydro visit the newsletter: http://www.bchydro.com/news/conservation/2015/decreased-snowpack-impacts-bc.html?WT.mc_id=c-15-03_snowpack
The local community college NVIT is in the middle of an expansion here in Merritt. Something over a million and a half dollars is being spent on leveling some ground and adding another trades trailer to the ones, they already have.
The existing trades trailers that include welding and metal work equipment for training and pre apprentice qualification were funded by Teck Corporation. The funding from the additions is coming from Western Economic Diversification , the federal government entity created to fill the hole left by the Crow rate when it was abolished. The Crow rate made freight( railway) rates more equal for western consumers of goods coming out of the industrial heartland of Eastern Canada.
Western Economic Diversification also funds The Community Futures program that assists small business with start-up and loans. They have a reasonable record with flower shops, motels, art supply and support for cultural events such as music festivals here in Merritt.
Opinion: With deference to the constraints of the Free Trade Agreements that regulate subsidies we think that (industrial )there remains a value to east west equity. There is value to large production lines effecting the price of consumer goods coming from North South transportation lines.
On this Day:February 24th 1996
February 24th is a leap day for the last time in the EU and the Roman Church.
February 29, also known as the leap day of the Gregorian calendar, is a date that occurs in most years that are divisible by 4, such as 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020. Years that are divisible by 100, but not by 400, do not contain a leap day; thus 1700, 1800, and 1900 did not contain a leap day while 1600 and 2000 did. Years containing a leap day are called leap years. February 29 is the 60th day of the Gregorian calendar in such a year, with 306 days remaining until the end of the year. For the Chinese calendar, this day itself in February will only occur in years of the monkey, dragon and rat.
Source Wikipedia
The local drill hall in Merritt is a hundred years old this month. February 1915 saw the building turned over to the owners the Federal Government.
Located at 1701 Coldwater avenue it has been the home of the Rocky Mountain Rangers for most of its existence, the Trudeau government sold it to the Elks in the 1960s for a dollar and that organization sponsored the 950 Merritt Cadet Corp for some years. The Reserve unit a mortar platoon support company was wound down at that time and later the Cadets moved across the street to a youth facility.
When built the City of Merritt just incorporated in 1911 would have been about 600 people, the armory would have involved a large percentage of the population.
They are having an open house at the old armoury on February 21st, this Saturday. The Lt Governor Judy Guichon a Valley native will be in attendance.
On this Day: February 19th 1986
Canadian Hockey Player and Montreal Canadians draftee, from Alberta Kyle Chipchura is born.
The Petro Canada is showing an offering of 1.09 a liter for regular gasoline at the pumping station at the junction of Highway 8 and 5A. There has been a dramatic drop in prices at the pumps in the last few weeks coming from mid $1.30 a liter to todays low. Petro Canada also offers a loyalty card program that gives you another 12 cents a liter making it possible to get regular gasoline at under the dollar a liter range. The CIBC is reporting that Canada has lost 5 billion in revenue in the recent drop in prices. We take that as lost revenue from exports. To balance the net benefit of lower gas prices to the consumer we must assume that a drop in price is a more broadly fare benefit to more people domestically then lost export revenue. Today in History: December 17th 1935 The DC-3 aircraft makes its first flight.
Opinion:
The news that a nurse hosting the Ebola Virus has been declared free of the disease is well received and hopeful. Logic says that a person once quarantined now free is also carrying antibodies against the virus, making serum from her blood is now a possible treatment for carriers, this use of her blood could be as expediential as the cotangent could have been. With thousands of forces going to West Africa to treat the source of the outbreak it gives us calm to know this resource exists.
The WHO has stated that transfusion of whole blood or purified serum from Ebola survivors is the therapy with the greatest potential to be implemented immediately, although there is little information as to its efficacy.[209] September 2014, WHO issued an interim guideline for this therapy.[210] The blood serum from those who have survived an infection is currently being studied to see if it is an effective treatment.[211] During a meeting arranged by WHO, this research was deemed to be a top priority.[211] Seven of eight people with Ebola survived after receiving a transfusion of blood donated by individuals who had previously survived the infection in an 1999 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[97][212] This treatment, however, was started late in the disease meaning they may have already been recovering on their own and the rest of their care was better than usual.[97] Thus this potential treatment remains controversial.[18]Intravenous antibodies appear to be protective in nonhuman primates who have been exposed to large doses of Ebola.[213] The WHO has approved the use of convalescent serum and whole blood products to treat people with Ebola source Wikipedia
Stay safe and take all reasonable precautions in this interconnected world we have.
Today in history: Oct 28th 1538
The first university in the new world is established in the Hispaniola (Dominican Republic)
One of 8 volumes of the environmental assessment. for the Lower Mainland 500 KV line. Hard copy at Public library.
Photo KDG
BC hydro has published notice that it will be doing fall winter burning of wood debris material along its new 500 KV line to the Lower Mainland, they say the work is “weather dependant” and contractors will be instructed to not burn unless the venting index is “good”.
The 247 kilometer line is still under construction and is meant to bring more electric power to the lower mainland and Vancouver Island. Merritt British Columbia is also having a cogeneration green wood waste incinerator worth hundreds of millions of dollars being built to join to the power grid.
Today in history: October 24th 1980
The government of Poland makes the Solidarity Trade Union legal.
The local election on November 15th has a full salte of candidates:
Running for Mayor Mike Jolly, Susan Roline, Neil Menard,
Running for councillor, Dave Baker, Linda K. Brown, Kurt Christopherson, Mike Geotz, Bruce Mcmurchy, Dianne Norgaard, Ginny Prowal.
School district 58 trustee: Tim Kroeker, Gordon Swan, Brian Jepson, Joyce Pierre, Everet Hosington.
Today in history: October 23rd 1958
The Smurfs make their first appearance in a production.
There are advance poll opportunities on November 5th and 12th.
Check with the city at Merritt.ca for polling places.
The local Chamber of Commerce will be hosting an all candidates forum on October 27th and 29th for the November 15th general election. All incumbents are running , with three Mayoral candidates, Susan Roline, Neil Menard, and Mike Jolly, there are a number of new contenders as well.
The events are at the Merritt civic center Mamette avenue downtown Merritt.
Today in History: October 17th 1994
A Russian journalist, Dmitry Kholodov is murdered while investigating corruption in the Military.
Contractors for new
5oo KV line hiring
File photo start of
project KDG
Two sources on the third 500 KV lower mainland line under construction for two years have said that there is a problem with the bolts that assemble the transmission towers. The most recent report says that 150 towers are having their bolts all replaced by higher grade bolts. This extends the project for one local contractor for some time. The project is now being constructed from both ends with one of the contractors going to the lower mainland end.
A problem with a collapsed tower at the beginning of the project was caused by a failed lifting cable with the crane installing it. The tower construction is now at the Murray lake area, in the Coquihalla ; a source says that they are installing snow legs and estimates they are the strongest worked on in memory.
Today in History: October 15th 1878
Kevin Griffiths
percypaschal
The Proprietor Review 