Concerns over soil piling up on the Nicomekl floodplain are unfounded, says the project manager in charge of Langley City’s sewer trunk line installation project.

Doug Hyde said that Langley-based Pedre Contractors is closely following guidelines set out in both the City’s own bylaws and a letter of advice from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Both prohibit the deposit of materials onto the floodplain.

Hyde was responding to worries voiced by area resident Rhys Griffiths that the contractor was not trucking away the soil after it was excavated, but was instead piling it onto the floodplain, where it threatened to raise potential high-water levels.

Unstable soil conditions in the pipe bed meant that more excavation was required than first thought.

Meanwhile crews were working quickly to get as much of the job completed as possible before the heavy fall rain set in.

It was for that reason, they decided to temporarily side cast the material and return later to haul it away, Hyde said.

“The contractor’s priority is to get as much pipe into the ground as possible before the Nicomekl River spills its banks,” he said.

However, they’re not going to flaunt any regulations in the process, he added.

“We’re having to follow the requirements of the bylaw and the letter of advice from the DFO,” said Hyde.

While Griffiths appreciates the effort and conceded there appear to have been a number of truckloads of excavated soil removed over the past week, he’s not convinced the contractor will be able to meet the guidelines.

“I’m doubtful. I know it can’t be done,” said Griffiths.

“It’s simply not possible to have zero displacement in the floodplain.”

Told that as many as 70 trucks of soil had been hauled out of the floodplain over the period of a day or two, Griffiths said, “I completely accept those numbers, even though I didn’t see it myself.”

And he agrees that the first priority is to get the pipe into the ground.

But, Griffiths pointed out, re-planting of trees is already being done above the pipeline.

He said the earth there is higher than its original level.

“You have to assume that’s the final position.”