FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 29, 2008

BC HYDRO REMOVES CULVERTS BECAUSE OF CONCERNS OF SLOPE INSTABILITY IN SLOCAN
PARK

This week BC Hydro removed the two 1200 mm culverts from the access road to
cut blocks 3 and 4 of the contentious Timber Sale License A80259 in Slocan
Park in the West Kootenays. BC Timber Sales has sold the logging rights to
Porcupine Barabonoff who is planning to extract 550 truckloads of timber
from local, highly visible slopes in the watersheds of this steep and
unstable area.

Block 3 is 21.2HA total with 17.9 HA to be logged
Block 4 is 10.8HA total with 7.8 HA to be logged

³This action was apparently in response to a request from a couple of years ago by local residents who were concerned about the potential for blockage of Arvid Creek at the culverts.² said Cal Burton. ³ I talked to Rick Birnie of BC Hydro today. He agrees with the complainants that the creek is unstable, with large boulders being moved by the water flow during the freshet that could have blocked the culverts. BC Hydro originally had the
culverts installed years ago. They now feel that this week's action will clear them of any liability, should a washout or debris flow now occur.²


Walter Popoff, candidate for Regional District Area "H" comments, ³BC Hydro's removal of the culverts at this particular time is an indication they are concerned that slope instability will increase the water flow in
the creek and that the movement of debris down the creek could block the culverts, resulting in a possible slide. They obviously do not want any part of the resulting liability. This provides the residents more reasons as to
why that area should not be logged. With a huge corporation like BC Hydro concerned about the potential of a slide, it has now gone beyond just local residents complaining, requiring not only the local forest officials¹
further involvement, the Minister of Forests and Range, Mr. Bell, has to be made aware of this.²

It is assumed that replacement of the culverts will now be up to the contractor with an associated cost of upwards of $50,000.

There will be a meeting at Slocan Park Hall on November 10th at 7pm to discuss further actions that concerned citizens can take to deal with the many serious issues regarding this timber sale.