Couple’s concerns ignored for two years

When Ron Brunelle announced to his wife Judy that the area near the lower lake at Mt. Edith was still being used to store fuel drums last week, she thought he was joking.

But when she looked for herself, she saw that not only were barrels still being stored there, but that there were two more containers than the last time they visited, two years ago.

When the issue was again presented to Parks, chief warden Steve Otway said it was a “mistake” for which he takes full responsibility.

“We do do a number of detailed flights in the winter and sometimes we drop fuel temporarily so that the helicopter isn’t flying back to town continuously to fuel up,” he said. “It’s my fault for not seeing that those barrels were not taken out quick enough.”

In an interview last Friday, Otway said the barrels would be picked up that day – exactly two years after Brunelle was first told something would be done about the location of the drums.

When the couple saw the containers in 2006, they went to the wardens’ office and spoke with Gord Antoniuk, the protection operations manager at the time who has since retired. Antoniuk said the barrels were “an accident waiting to happen” and instructed an employee to move them.

After leaving Jasper, Brunelle followed up by sending an email to Parks to make sure the drums had been removed. He was concerned that they were near a stream and could be easily opened.

A segment from the letter he wrote in 2006 says: “I discovered two 45-gallon barrels containing aviation turbine engine fuel. These barrels were just lying there in the open next to the run-off stream from the glacier. I was shocked and horrified to see this...”

Atoniuk replied in an e-mail, “The fuel drums were removed that very day that you reported the matter to me, on July 11 (2006). I have also initiated an investigative process whereby the future storage of fuel drums in these remote locations will be more securely handled. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.”

Brunelle’s wife said the fact that Parks hadn’t done anything demonstrated an obvious lack of concern.

“It just doesn’t seem right, it’s a well-traveled tourist attraction and that’s how you treat it?” she said. “And you could smell the fuel, what if somebody threw a match or a cigarette?”

“We do care,” Otway said in response. “We definitely care about our park and that’s why we go to such great lengths to monitor things like wildlife species, non-native plants, to fire management to mountain pine beetle, all the numerous reasons that we have in the park for flying.”

He said in the future the fuel will be kept at the helicopter pad in town, where it’s normally stored, and that he will no longer permit landings in that area except in emergency situations.

Anyone with an environmental concern should call the Parks dispatch line at 780-852-6155. Regarding the drums, Otway said, “It’s an oversight of ours and it’s great that people let us know.”

Whether the assurances will hold true this time around remains to be seen.

“I would like to see them do something, it’s not an area to have that,” Brunelle said. “The next step... I don’t know, but it won’t be good.”