The Big Bar Landslide site on the Fraser River saw rock blasting Tuesday to remove a large chunk of the obstruction.
Pressure has been on the federal and provincial governments for months who鈥檝e been working collaboratively with First Nations to get the blockage removed.
鈥淭his week, Peter Kiewit & Sons successfully carried out a planned blast at the East Toe,鈥� DFO stated in a Feb. 21 news release. 鈥淜iewit also made solid progress on the construction of an overland road for heavy equipment, and on the installation of a highline to facilitate site access and on rock fall prevention.鈥�
The East Toe blast, which took place on February 18, took out a large portion of bedrock extending into the river at the site of the slide.
鈥淭he result is a widened channel and more flow directed toward the east river bank.鈥�
Update: Successful initial blasting of the Big Bar landslide East Toe. Learn more:
鈥� DFO Pacific (@DFO_Pacific)
Sto:lo fisherman Ken Malloway, who鈥檚 been involved as a member of the First Nations panel at Big Bar thinks it was a 鈥済ood move鈥� to finally get the blasting done by a 鈥渢op notch鈥� U.S.-based company.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been pushing them to move as much of the debris as they can. Some rocks are as big as a house,鈥� Malloway said. 鈥淣ow that they took that East Toe out it should help with the fish passage, but there is still lots of work left to be done.鈥�
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The massive slide, which was discovered last June, severely restricted fisheries and impacted communities reliant on fish. That triggered a joint effort in July by governments and First Nations, and an Incident Command Post was established at Kamloops.
DFO said acoustic monitoring downstream from the slide did not detect any fish in the area before the blast and no fish mortality was detected after.
鈥淒rilling on the East Toe will now resume in preparation for a second blast in early March, depending on the weather.鈥�
Malloway who also sits on the Fraser River Panel of the Pacific Salmon Commission, said the consensus this week was that 鈥淒FO was doing as much as they possibly can on this鈥� with the limited amount of time in the work window.
The Hell鈥檚 Gate slide took 40 or 50 years to get fixed, and another slide on the Bulkley River also took years.
鈥淪o we鈥檙e moving at lightening speed now compared to those efforts in the past,鈥� Malloway said.
There is also talk about putting in a temporary fish way, to help more fish get past the blockage, which Malloway said he supported.
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