More than a year after a Peace Valley landslide forced the evacuation of Old Fort residents, with six homes still under an evacuation order or emergency alert, the regional district and B.C. government are wrangling over who is responsible for determining if the community of 200 is safe. 

“This uncertainty is affecting the whole community down there,” Brad Sperling, chair of the Peace River Regional District, told The Narwhal.

“But even more so, the three [property owners] that are on alert, they’re living day to day being ready to get out. It’s not right and it’s not fair.” 

The slide, in an area underlaid by numerous natural gas leases and near one entrance to the Site C dam worksite, was classified as a “dangerous occurrence” under B.C.’s health, safety and reclamation code.

That triggered a geotechnical assessment to identify “the root cause and contributing factors” of the slide, according to a briefing note for Peter Robb, mining and energy assistant deputy minister, that was included in the response to a Freedom of Information request made by The Narwhal.

A screenshot of a briefing note prepared for Peter Robb, assistant deputy minister of B.C.’s Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources. The briefing note was obtained by The Narwhal through a Freedom of Information request. The document also notes the region is home to “historically unstable slopes.”

But almost 14 months later — with the landslide moving metres a day for the first month and then settling, before advancing another few centimetres last spring — the geotechnical assessment is not yet complete, the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources said in an email to The Narwhal. 

“The Chief Inspector’s investigation into this matter is ongoing,” the ministry said, noting that “13 months is not an unusual amount of time to complete such a complex investigation.” 

“ … everything surrounding the slide is very hush-hush.”

The ministry did not respond to a question asking what information must still be gathered in order to conclude the investigation into the slide, which displaced eight million cubic metres of earth and blocked the only road to Old Fort for a month. 

Old Fort resident Kali Chmelyk said community members are getting contradictory messages about the landslide, noting “everything surrounding the slide is very hush-hush.”

For example, when residents ask about the temporary road into the community and when it will be paved, they’re told the slide is still dangerous and still moving and not to stop their cars on the road because it isn’t safe, Chmelyk said. 

“But then when you bring up ‘so it’s dangerous, what does that mean?’ Then you get the response of ‘oh no, everything’s fine, it’s not dangerous, it’s not moving anymore, there’s no danger to safety, blah, blah, blah.’ ”

“These are our homes and we want to know we’re safe where we are. I don’t want to be told in six months ‘it’s possible that this could happen again, so we’re just going to buy you out.’”

Google map showing the location of the Old Fort landslide in relation to the Peace River and the Site C dam. Photo: Cathrine Ruddell / Twitter

Site C project commissions landslide report 

The banks of the Peace River are notoriously unstable, sparking calls for an independent safety review of the $10.7 billion Site C dam, the largest publicly funded infrastructure project in B.C.’s history. 

Geotechnical problems have already slowed work on the project and have contributed to its escalating cost.

The Joint Review Panel that examined the Site C dam for the federal and provincial governments found that slope instability and landslides in the valley “would potentially adversely affect” the project and “could result in landslide-generated waves or overtopping of the dam that could result in direct damage to infrastructure.”

The FOI documents show that, immediately following the slide, BC Hydro requested a Site C project field reconnaissance report from BGC Engineering Inc.

Work being done to build a temporary access road to the community of Old Fort on October 20, 2018. Photo: Matt Preprost / Alaska Highway News

According to emails, BGC engineer Andrew Mitchell asked the provincial government for LIDAR data for a two-kilometre square area around the landslide. Other FOI documents show BGC examined LIDAR data dating back to 2015, the year preliminary construction for the Site C dam began. 

“We’d be very interested in seeing the wider view of the recent topography,” Mitchell told the energy and mining ministry in an email.

LIDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method that uses lasers to record information about the earth’s surface. It is used for a wide range of land management and planning efforts, including for hazard assessment in the case of events such as tsunamis, lava flows and landslides.

Sperling said he wasn’t aware of the BGC report, which was sent to Pooley and others — including to staff in B.C.’s ministries of energy, transportation and forests, lands and natural resource operations — as well as to BC Hydro’s Site C team.

“They were doing LIDAR flyovers in that two-kilometre area but that was supposedly to figure out where the Old Fort slide was going,” Sperling said. “I had no idea that BC Hydro was involved in this.” 

B.C. investigation into Old Fort landslide caught up in conflict of interest, residents say

Site C project landslide report redacted from FOI response

The BGC report was redacted from the FOI documents, which The Narwhal received more than one year after filing its request. 

Almost 70 pages were removed from the FOI response on the grounds that contents would reveal policy advice or recommendations, or because disclosure would be harmful to law enforcement or personal privacy.

“Why are they redacting stuff?” Sperling asked. 

Site C dam construction in 2018 along the banks of the Peace River. The dam is located roughly one kilometre upstream from the location of the Old Fort landslide. Photo: Garth Lenz / The Narwhal

He said he would ask the regional district board to write a letter to the provincial government at its next meeting on Nov. 28 requesting more information.

“We write letters, our MP writes letters, so does our MLA,” Sperling said. “And it just seems the province uses the wording in the [emergency program management] legislation and puts it back on the district and leaves us to our own devices.”

Gravel mine above Old Fort ‘not the root cause’ of landslide

According to emails in the FOI documents, a gravel mine stockpiling materials on the slope above Old Fort was not the root cause of the landslide, which destroyed a house and cut off the community with a wall of earth, rocks and trees. 

Crews work to remove gravel loads from a pit above the Old Fort landslide, Oct. 6, 2018. Photo: Matt Preprost / Alaska Highway News

A load of gravel is moved away from the hillside and closer to the 240 Road. Photo: Matt Preprost / Alaska Highway News

“The size of the slide seems to indicate that there were underlying issues with the material down the entire slope,” said an email from mining inspector Adrian Pooley.

“The weight of the material is a contributing factor [to the] slide, but it is not the root cause,” Pooley, a professional engineer, wrote to senior inspector of mines Laurie Meade and others in the ministry. 

The email was written on Oct. 2, 2018, just two days after the slide began, on the day Pooley toured the disaster area on the outskirts of Fort St. John.

Pooley also noted that the permit given to Deasan Holdings, owners of the gravel mining operation, stated that stockpiled material must be designed by a professional engineer “and when asked they said they had not done this.” 

But “even if they had involved a geotechnical engineer it’s unlikely that they even would have identified the potential for a slide like this to happen,” Pooley wrote.

Sperling called the information about Deasan’s apparent non-compliance with its mining permit “surprising.” 

The district had asked the provincial government if Deasan was in compliance with its permit, issued the month before the landslide, but did not receive an answer, Sperling noted.

“That is the kind of information that we’ve been waiting for,” he said. “We need to know what’s going on.”

Sperling said regional directors knew the ministry was investigating the potential role the gravel mine may have played in triggering the landslide. But he said they were not aware of the broader investigation into the root cause and contributing factors to the slide.

“My response is surprise. I didn’t know that. They’re doing a study on the root cause of it?”

Government says further landslide movement ‘is possible’

For months, the regional district and the provincial government have exchanged sometimes testy letters over who holds responsibility for determining if the slopes around Old Fort are stable enough for the evacuation order and alerts to be lifted. In addition to six houses, the order and alert include portions of other properties and Crown land. 

“The vast majority of the evacuation order is actually on Crown land,” Sperling said. “That in itself frustrates us because now we are responsible for Crown land? If you read the emergency legislation we’re responsible for people and private land.”

In August, the regional district board asked Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth for data and information to substantiate the minister’s claim that the area is unlikely to experience “a dramatic slippage of the remaining hillside that might further impact homes” in the Old Fort area.

A section of Old Fort Road, heavily damaged in the 2018 landslide. Photo: Matt Preprost / Alaska Highway News

The district informed Farnworth it will have that information “verified by geotechnical and all applicable experts.” 

In response, deputy minister of Emergency Management BC Lori Halls wrote back that transportation ministry staff would reach out to ensure the regional district knows how to access data about earth movements.

“It is acknowledged that further slow movement of the terrain is possible, but as noted in the minister’s response, the assessment of the risk and application of evacuation orders or alerts is the purview of the PRRD [Peace River Regional District],” Halls said in a letter.

Sperling said the district has decided to commission its own geotechnical review of the current risk to properties in Old Fort, and the contract will be discussed at the regional board’s next meeting on Nov. 28. The district has requested funding from Emergency Management BC for the review, Sperling noted.

“We can’t wait,” he said. “It’s been 14 months. Those people want some clarity down there. And the board agreed to move forward even if we have to financially take it on ourselves.” 

Old Fort resident Gord Pardy speaks at a community meeting, Oct. 6, 2018. Photo: Matt Preprost / Alaska Highway News

Old Fort residents at a community meeting. Photo: Matt Preprost / Alaska Highway News

Chmelyk said Old Fort residents are perturbed by the lack of information. 

“It really seems that everybody is passing the buck and nobody wants to take responsibility and nobody wants to be held accountable for it — and that is super frustrating for all of us down here.”

Fish habitat work for Site C dam affected by slide

BC Hydro has said there is no indication the landslide was connected to nearby excavations and other major earthworks for the Site C dam.

However, the slide has affected at least one aspect of work on the hydro project, which is $2 billion over-budget and behind schedule for diverting the Peace River so the dam structure can be built.

Sperling said the landslide affected a Peace River island and blocked a back channel of the river near Old Fort where fish habitat enhancement for the Site C project was scheduled to take place.

“In order for them to go ahead with their original plans they would have to remove that part of the slide. Without proper assessment I would really object to that. I did have a meeting with them and said ‘I don’t want you guys touching that.’ ” 

The Old Fort landslide began on September 20, 2018. In this photo, a helicopter takes a LIDAR survey to measure the landslide’s movement and speed on Oct. 6, 2018. Photo: Matt Preprost / Alaska Highway News

A Nov. 13 letter from BC Hydro to Sperling said “given the recent instability in the area” BC Hydro will not be initiating any work around Old Fort.

BC Hydro is “evaluating alternative locations to meet our commitments with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans,” said the letter from Shanna Mason, director of environment, regulation and community impacts and properties for the Site C project. 

“BC Hydro understands and respects the concerns of the PRRD and Old Fort residents regarding any works which could impact slope stability,” Mason wrote. 

DFO requires BC Hydro to implement “mitigation” measures as a condition of its environmental assessment certificate because the Site C dam will destroy fish habitat, including for at-risk bull trout, which will be anesthetized and transported past the dam in trucks so they can reach their spawning grounds.

BC Hydro does not intend to undertake works “in areas of stability concern and works within the Peace River mainstem near Old Fort are assessed by engineers to ensure there will be no interaction with the areas of instability,” Mason wrote.

She also said BC Hydro would brief the regional district and provide updates to Old Fort residents prior to completing any work on the north bank of the Peace River near Old Fort. 

Gravel pit operator given new exploration permit

According to Michelle Mungall, Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, the investigation into the gravel mining operation’s potential role in the landslide was nearing completion last June.

In a June 12, 2019 letter to Sperling, Mungall said the scope of the investigation includes “determining the extent, if any, that the mining activity contributed to the landslide, reviewing the permitting process, reviewing the compliance history of the site and evaluating if there may be other sites in the province that should be reviewed for similar conditions.” 

The FOI documents show that immediately following the slide, Victor Koyanagi, acting regional director for B.C.’s office of the chief inspector of mines, asked his staff for a list of “permitted aggregate pits located anywhere on the flank of the Peace River from Hudson’s Hope to the Alberta border.” 

The Old Fort landslide took place in a region with historically unstable slopes. Photo: Matt Preprost / Alaska Highway News

That included all pits near the future Site C reservoir area, which will stretch 83 kilometres from Fort St. John to Hudson’s Hope, as well as an additional 45 kilometres, in total, along Peace River tributaries.

Aggregate, or gravel, is in high demand in northeast B.C. by the natural gas industry, which uses large amounts of gravel at fracking well pads. 

The ministry provided The Narwhal with a list of the 35 gravel pits along the Peace River. The Site C project was listed as the permitee for two of the pits, according to the list provided, which noted that one pit had closed. 

The ministry said none of the gravel pits, with the exception of the Deasan Holdings operation above Old Fort, are under a suspension of work order.

Shortly before Mungall wrote to Sperling, her ministry issued Deasan Holdings a permit to explore subsurface conditions under the slide area “and compare it with subsurface conditions where the ground did not slide in 2018.”

“Deasan hopes the comparison should show the depth of the failure zone during the October 2018 landslide,” said the permit, which also said the work may help to determine whether historical landslides have occurred in the past. 

The Narwhal’s FOI request, filed on October 12, 2018, asked the B.C. Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources for records and communications related to the Peace Valley landslide over the 12-day period since the landslide had begun. 

The ministry responded well past established deadlines for answering a FOI.

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The landslide began on the last day of September, a day no resident of the small Peace River community of Old Fort will forget.

A slide on a steep slope near the town quickly buckled and destroyed portions of the only road leading into and out of the community. Before long, the road was buried under a mass of earth, rock and trees, and the seemingly unstoppable wall of slumped and moving earth forced the evacuation of the community’s 200 residents.

Ever since then, residents have had lots of questions of B.C.’s Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources. Questions about whether the slide may have been triggered by a gravel mining operation at the top of the slope.

They continue to wait for answers from a ministry that also has ultimate authority for major hydroelectric dams, oil and gas industry operations and mines, all of which have the potential to trigger landslides, especially if they occur along the river that borders their community.

During the community’s evacuation, information was released about a historic “failure” at the very same location, directly downslope from a gravel mine. Locals now wonder aloud why the operation was permitted given foreknowledge of slope instability.

“Is this a natural occurrence or is there a man-made reason behind this?” asks Old Fort resident Kali Chmelyk.

“I want to know that those hills are not going to come crashing into our community.”

Work is done on a temporary access road, October 20, 2018. Photo: Matt Preprost / Alaska Highway News

‘We cannot release any information’

The steep slopes siding the Peace River are notoriously unstable.

Over the years dramatic landslides have blocked the river, wiped out bridges, and sent plumes of sediment coursing down tributaries and into the main stem of the river for months on end.

Which now begs the question why B.C.’s ministry of energy would knowingly allow a new gravel mine to operate on the very same parcel of land where a previous mining venture had caused slope failures.

Sometime after the September slide occurred and a local state of emergency was declared, the ministry of energy launched an investigation into events at the slide site.

But the ministry is refusing to release any documents or correspondence with the mining company about known “slope stability” concerns — because, they say, an investigation is currently underway.

As Old Fort’s 54 homes were being evacuated in early October, images of the slide began appearing, showing huge stockpiles of mined gravel very close to where the slide began.

Google map showing the location of the Old Fort landslide in relation to the gravel pits and the Site C dam. Photo: Cathrine Ruddell / Twitter

In response to a request for any documents relating to unstable slopes at or near the mine site, the ministry’s communications director, David Haslam, responded by e-mail in early November, furnishing only copies of the original “Notice of Work” filed in May by mining company, Deasan Holdings Ltd., and the “Sand and Gravel Permit” issued to the company by the ministry on August 7.

All other documents, including correspondence between the ministry and the company regarding unstable slopes were withheld.

Pasted to the bottom of Haslam’s e-mail was an undated note from Al Hoffman, chief inspector of mines, indicating that he had ordered an investigation into the Old Fort slide under Section 7 of the Mines Act.

“We cannot release any information that might prejudice an active investigation,” Hoffman said, adding: “All other documentation is now part of the ongoing investigation and may not be released publicly at this time.”

Section 7 of the Act grants powers to the chief mines inspector to order an investigation into any “accident” that may have caused “personal injury, loss of life or property or environmental damage.”

Slopes historically unstable

The community of Old Fort lies close to the river only a short distance downstream from the Site C dam construction site where “tension cracks” appeared on the unstable north riverbank in February and again in May, 2017. Those cracks forced a BC Hydro contractor to remove massive quantities of earth to reduce the risk of a slope failure in the vicinity of the project, the costs of which have ballooned from $6.6 billion to an estimated $10.7 billion.

At a lengthy public meeting organized by the Peace River Regional District the day after the evacuation, a ministry spokesperson fielded numerous questions from residents about the gravel mine, including one from evacuee Gordon Pardy.

“If a little bit of common sense could take place here you might ask the question: Why would a very large heavy pile of crushed material be stockpiled right on the edge of an unstable — a historically unstable — valley?”

“Those are the things that we will be looking into with our investigation,” replied Adrian Pooley, who works in mines operations at the ministry’s offices in Prince George and who joined the meeting remotely by speakerphone.

During the meeting, Pooley revealed that there had been a previous “failure” at the mine site sometime in the 1980s or 1990s when another company had operated there.

A portion of a slope on the northeast side of the property collapsed after gravel was excavated from below. “There were some studies that went into that and some conditions around no further removal of material up in that portion [of the property],” Pooley said.

The Old Fort slide occurred at the south end of the property, away from where gravel was being actively removed but near where large piles of gravel had been stored, Pooley said. On the day that the slide occurred, the ministry of energy and mines received reports that the outer edge of the gravel quarry or excavation area had dropped eight to 10 metres.

Both the area of the property that was actively mined and the land where the company was temporarily storing gravel before delivering it to customers, are under the ministry of energy and mine’s jurisdiction.

Pooley went on to say that the mining company “did not do a study on the weight of the stockpiles” and added more generally that no geotechnical studies had been done “on the slope on the south end of the property.”

A section of Old Fort Road, heavily damaged in the landslide. Photo: Matt Preprost / Alaska Highway News

Officials warned of ‘slope stability issues’

Pooley’s comments generated numerous questions and responses from Old Fort residents attending the meeting, including from one who felt that it was a “conflict of interest” for the ministry that issued the mining permit to conduct an investigation into what may have gone wrong at the mine site; another who questioned who would be held liable should the mine be linked in some way to the slide; and another who maintained that local residents had witnessed a smaller slide at the mine site months before the bigger slide but that nothing had been done.

As previously reported by The Narwhal, information filed with the Peace River Regional District by the former mine owner shows that a little more than three years before Deasan Holdings commenced gravel extraction this summer, an official warned of challenges at the site.

That warning came from Kris Bailey, the ministry’s inspector of mines permitting in Prince George.

“Please be advised that based on the past geotechnical and slope stability issues present both at the site and surrounding areas a mine plan will be required to be developed by a qualified geotechnical and or mining engineer. It is strongly advised that any potential future mining proponents contact this office prior to mine planning,” Bailey wrote then mine owner Jack Blair, on July 17, 2015.

Bailey, who still works for the ministry but in a different capacity, said during a phone conversation following the slide that he could not provide copies of the mine plan or any related documents because the matter had been pushed “up the food chain” in the ministry. He referred questions to Diane Howe, deputy chief inspector of mines permitting.

Howe did not return phone calls.

‘Extreme caution…should be observed’

Arthur Hadland, a longtime resident in the Peace Region and a former director of the Peace River Regional District, says nobody should be surprised by the slide.

“The banks of the Peace River have been identified as extremely unstable ever since man started messing around with it,” Hadland said, adding that that reality is well understood in the ministry.

Hadland noted that in 1991, then energy and mines minister, Jack Weisgerber, had received a report from Norm Catto, with the Geological Survey Branch. Catto’s report noted that some of the most accessible gravel deposits in the Peace River region were along the river itself, an area that was known for being extremely unstable.

“Slope failure is ubiquitous along all of the major streams in the region,” Catto wrote in his report, adding later: “Extreme caution should therefore be observed in any effort to exploit or utilize river valley slopes.”

Given the known risks, Hadland said it is imperative that any investigation into the Old Fort slide has as its priority “the safety of downstream people.”

That investigation should be broad, he said, and include all land-use activities that could conceivably destabilize slopes including gravel mining operations, oil and gas industry gas wells and disposal wells, the Site C dam, and two large Fort St. John sewage lagoons nearby to Old Fort.

Documents give insight into pre-existing concerns

Despite the ministry’s decision to withhold key documents, enough information exists in the mining permit issued to Deasan Holdings to indicate that the office had concerns about the region’s unstable slopes.

The permit was signed by Victor Koyannagi, a professional engineer and senior inspector of mines, and is dated August 7 of this year. The seven-page document is peppered with references to geotechnical concerns, including “slope stability,” “erosion,” and “unstable slopes.”

At one point, the permit notes:

“…a qualified professional engineer shall determine the potential inundation zone (Zone) for all unstable slopes including the eastern pit slope that has already slumped. This zone shall be clearly illustrated on a map and shall be provided to the Regional Inspector of Mines prior to initiating mining activities. The Zone shall be clearly defined and marked on the ground ensuring equipment and workers are prohibited from entering the Zone.”

The document also clearly instructs Deasan to hire a “qualified professional engineer” to design any “temporary and permanent stockpiles” of gravel. And that “daily visual inspections” of such stockpiles are required “to ensure stability and erosion control is maintained.”

At least two documents that may have been withheld from the public by the ministry are referred to or alluded to in the permit.

The first is a “slope design” document prepared for Deasan Holdings by Tryon Land Surveying Ltd., a company that has operated in northeast B.C. since 1961. On its website, Tryon says that it specializes “in the design and execution of civil and land development engineering as well as structural engineering,” including mining projects.

The permit also notes that Deasan was required to file a “geotechnical incident report” in the event of any “dangerous occurrence” at the mine site.

One such occurrence appears to have happened during the summer.

Bob Banack, a resident who lives just west of the gravel mine site said that sometime in late July or early August he witnessed a slide at the site. The slide was triggered as a road was being built down toward where the gravel piles were eventually placed, Banack said.

“When they did build that road…it rained. And that whole hill, basically, it slid all the way down,” Banack said. “There were a couple of guys at the bottom and a couple of guys at the top and the guys at the bottom were standing with their hands out.”

Banack said he phoned the City of Fort St. John to alert officials to what he saw, but was told that the property was not under municipal jurisdiction. Banack added that he “assumed” the gravel pit operator had reported the incident.

Following the public meeting where Pooley fielded questions, Banack said he received a call from Pooley asking him to explain what he had witnessed at the site.

Residents, still on evacuation alert, say scope of investigation unclear

Peace River Regional District board chair Brad Sperling said most residents in Old Fort are now back in their homes.

One property and house was damaged by the slide and is now uninhabitable, another half dozen homeowners closest to the leading edge of the slide have been told to remain on evacuation alert because their properties could still be threatened, Sperling said.

A new road to Old Fort was constructed on top of the landslide. The speed limit posted along the new roadway is 30 kilometres per hour. Photo: Matt Preprost / Alaska Highway News

As of now, Sperling says the Peace River Regional District has received no formal notice from the provincial government about which ministries may ultimately investigate the slide and its causes.

While he said he knew that the ministry of energy and mines was investigating the events at the mine site itself, he felt that such an investigation needed to be expanded.

“We want the answer from the province, not a single ministry,” Sperling said.

Public Health and Safety Minister, Mike Farnworth, flew over the slide on October 10.

During the course of his visit, the slide advanced 20 metres, about five times more than it had on average since the slide had begun 11 days earlier when the district declared a local state of emergency.

“Once this whole issue has been resolved, once the slide is stabilized, once people know what the long-term situation is going to be, of course there’s going to be an investigation into how this happened, why it happened, and are there measures that need to be taken to mitigate or ensure it doesn’t happen again,” Farnworth told the Alaska Highway News, which has reported extensively on the slide since it began.

One month after Farnworth’s visit, however, the scope of any promised investigation remains unclear. His ministry even declined to answer questions about whether it would participate in such an investigation, referring all questions to the ministry of energy and mines.

After e-mailing questions to Farnworth’s ministry about what provincial ministries would take part in any investigation, Jordan Turner, a communications manager covering Emergency Preparedness, part of Farnworth’s ministry, phoned to say that answers would come from someone else.

“That response will come from energy and mines,” Turner said.

The ministry of energy and mines subsequently confirmed that it is currently the only provincial ministry actively investigating the slide.

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