Internal investigation says blowout not Hydro’s fault
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Updated: September 24, 2009 12:37 PM
Residents and businesses affected by the power blow out on June 30, apparently after a contractor cut a tree onto a power line met again this week to plot strategy on how to get compensation.
More than 200 homes and businesses were affected.
Ian Morrison, regional director for Cowichan Lake South-Skutz Falls, where most of the damage was done to appliances and electronic equipment, said he wants to gather letters and the lists of damage from those affected.
Morrison is scheduled to meet with Blair Lekstrom, Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, who is responsible for BC Hydro, at the convention of the Union of BC Municipalities.
The meeting comes on the heels of a letter from D. Mix, BC Hydro’s claims manager, who notes that after an investigation by BC Hydro’s engineering department that the crown corporation’s equipment was built in accordance with applicable standards and that it operated as designed.
“The report confirms that the power surge resulted from the falling of the tree into the power lines and that there was no error or fault on BC Hydro’s part in regard to this incident,” wrote Mix.
Morrison said the results of the BC Hydro investigation don’t surprise him.
“I’m disappointed, but it wasn’t anything that surprised me,” he said. “It didn’t surprise me that they closed ranks.”
If nothing comes out of the meeting with Lekstrom, the claimants are considering a class action law suit.
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