The District of Kitimat resumed drawing water from the Kitimat River on Thursday after shutting down the pumps a day earlier.
The District stopped pumping water on Wednesday and advised residents to cut down on water usage following a landslide above the 18 Mile bridge on Highway 37S.
The landslide, which happened sometime between Tuesday and Wednesday morning, occurred in a remote spot on the river inaccessible by road.
Residents first noticed something was wrong when the Kitimat River turned a muddy brown on Wednesday morning.
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Coastal GasLink (CGL) senior communications specialist Natasha Westover confirmed on Thursday that a landslide had occurred but that it wasn’t related to the company’s construction activities.
CGL dispatched a helicopter to patrol the river and spotted the landslide on Wednesday afternoon, three kilometres upstream from where the company last worked.
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“The CGL team have confirmed a landslide but not from our activities. A chopper was taken up the river to confirm and we found the location where a rainstorm caused a landslide,” said Westover.
Coastal GasLink also supplied the Northern Sentinel with photos of the landslide taken from the helicopter.
