UPDATE-Playful protest

Opponents of a BC Transmission Corporation power line upgrade hope to bring attention to their cause and block construction with the world's longest running game of hopscotch.

Members of Mothers Against Power Poles (MAPP) and their children set up outside South Delta Secondary School Monday (July 7) with a new weapon added to their arsenal of signs and posters: chalk.

Pastel blue, pink and orange squares made up the playing field on the sidewalk along 53rd Street, directly in front of the blue fences delineating where work crews will soon want to access.

The group started playing the game around 7 a.m. but by mid-day constant hopscotch activity had stopped.

"We've run out of energy so we'll have to go back and start again. So it's going to take a while to get that Guinness Book of World Records," said Debbie McBride with MAPP.

She said the longest running game of hopscotch listed in the Guinness Book of World Records lasted 118 hours.

"We will continue to play hopscotch and games like BCTC does until we get it (the lines) underground," said McBride.

The lines run over the school's grounds, and McBride said with the potential link between electromagnetic fields to childhood leukemia, erecting poles with higher voltage where students frequent is "just a no go."

BCTC Vancouver Island Transmission Reinforcement (VITR) project will replace more than 70 wooden poles with 20 higher voltage steel poles along the Tsawwassen segment of the project. The VITR upgrade is to ensure secure power to customers on Vancouver Island and the Southern Gulf Islands.

Construction on the Tsawwassen segment began in June. The BC Supreme Court granted BCTC an injunction against a number of homeowners who denied work crews access into their yards, which include a BC Hydro right-of-way.

In the face of continued efforts to block construction, BCTC is seeking a court order for a broader injunction as well as enforcement orders, to be heard at the BC Supreme Court in Vancouver Thursday morning at 9:45 a.m.

Said Janet Stewart with BCTC public affairs, "We are presenting the judge with evidence that the original injunction order has not been complied with and that further illegal obstructions of construction have occurred."

She said the order will cover "any individuals that have knowledge of the order."

Tina Ryan, a homeowner along 53 A Street whose property includes the right-of-way and who was named in the earlier injunction, hopes Tsawwassen residents will show their support at the hearing on Thursday.

kthiessen@southdeltaleader.com

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