HISTORICAL NEWS SEARCH - Government of British Columbia

maximum discharge rate of 1,200 m 3 /s at the gauging station at Wrangell, Alaska, 90 km downstream from the glacier
dam. Glacial outburst floods from Flood Lake are routed through Flood River 4 km downstream from the drainage
tunnel in the ice dam. Analysis of the discharge records of the U.S. Geological Survey Stikine River station near
Wrangell showed an estimated total water volume of 149.3 million m 3 for this flood (Clarke and Waldron 1984).
November 14, 1979
Event type: Mudslide.
Precipitation: Not available.
Source: The Citizen, November 16 and 20, 1979; The Province, November 16, 1979.
On the night of November 14, a mudslide in the Prince George BC Rail yard derailed a boxcar and seven
butane-filled tanker cars. More than 0.5 m of mud covered about 45 m of track, blocking the BC Rail line between
Prince George and the Northwood pulpmills. The mud also pushed away a small bridge the company stored in the area.
Rain unexpectedly fast increased the thawing of the ground. On November 16, a BC Rail spokesman said that there
was more mud on the tracks than first estimated. Traffic was expected to resume on the afternoon of November 17.
The slide, which was cleared by November 16 only affected rail traffic between Fort St. John-Prince George.
This most recent slide came down in a mudslide-prone area. *1) The mud is about 15 m away from the track.
About 20 stories high, it is too loose to hold foundations. According to BCR spokesman Hugh Armstrong, it had been a
“trouble spot for many, many years.” The company kept a dragline, a “cable-and-bucket-affair, in there to keep rid of
the mud.” BC Rail president M.C. Norris expressed concern about the repeated derailments between Prince George and
the Northwood pulpmills. Though there had been other derailments caused by mudslides in the past, Norris said it was
an isolated problem because of the topography.
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*1) The previous year a mudslide in the same area killed two men. Immediately after the accident, the whole area was
cleaned out and completely cleaned out since. (The Province, November 16, 1979).
November 19-21, 1979
Event type: Debris slides.
Precipitation: Kildala (79.4 mm/3 days), November 19-21, 1979; Tasu Sound (146.8 mm/3 days), November 19-21,
1979; Falls River (210.8 mm/3 days), November 19-21, 1979; Sewell Inlet (207.7 mm/3 days), November 19-21, 1979;
Prince Rupert M. Circ (146.4 mm/3 days), November 19-21, 1979; Prince Rupert (100.4 mm/2 days), November 20-
21, 1979; Sandspit A (81.6 mm/2 days), November 20-21, 1979; Terrace (79.4 mm/2 days) November 20-21, 1979;
Kitimat 2 (113.8 mm/2 days) November 20-21, 1979; Cape St. James (98.9 mm/2 days), November 20-21, 1979.
Source: The Daily Colonist, November 27 and December 1, 1979; The Vancouver Sun, December 3 and 4, 1979;
Victoria Times, February 7 and 13, 1980; B.C. Ministry of Forests, Queen Charlotte City.
Between November 19-21, slope failures occurred in Cutting Permits CP 144 and CP 145 in the Rennell
Sound area on the Queen Charlotte Islands. The nearby weather station Penthouse recorded 159.8 mm of rain in three
days.
During heavy rains on November 20-22, 13 slides occurred; three of which caused extensive damage to Riley
Creek. Eight more were reported in the area on November 26 (?).
On November 24-25 and 27, landslides occurred in a logged-over valley in a cutting permit operated by QC
Timber Ltd. The slides threatened a major salmon-spawning stream. Three of the slides were considered major,
measuring up to 60 m across exposing bedrock in crevasses up to 15 m deep. A wall of mud crossed a logging access
road and moved into slash and standing timber near Riley Creek, a major pink salmon stream. *1)
According to Don Smuin, the environment ministry’s regional director for the Skeena area, the provincial
environment ministry’s objections early the previous spring to the permit granted by the forests ministry were ignored.
Newly appointed Environment Minister Stephen Rogers called it a “disgraceful accident,” adding if anybody goofed, it
was the forests ministry, not the forest company” (The Vancouver Sun, December 4, 1979).
The differences between the two provincial ministries flared into the open after 13 landslides, three of them
termed significant, occurred the previous week in the logged-over valley that was the scene the previous March of a
bitter dispute between forestry officials and the federal fisheries department (The Vancouver Sun, December 4, 1979).
(see: October 29-November 1, 1978 event).
Forestry minister Tom Waterland, said that the problem in Rennell Sound is that the cross ditch was built in
an area where there is a natural piping effect and that the extra water “greased it (the slope) right out, and away she
went” (Victoria Times, February 13, 1980). *2)
The conflict between the forest ministry and the federal fisheries department over continued logging at this
site led to the arrest of 15 loggers. (The Vancouver Sun, December 3, 1979). Charges under the Fisheries Act (with
endangering a fish habitat by increasing the risk of sedimentation in spawning areas) against the 15 loggers and an
official of QC Timber Ltd. were dropped after Premier Bill Bennett wired a strong protest to then Fisheries minister
Romeo LeBlanc.
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