A near-fatal kayaking incident on Canada Day has resulted in warning signs being posted at two locations on the Coquihalla River.

An old pipeline crosses the river in two places. The first, according to an Enbridge Facebook post, is 500 yards south of exit #192 (Sowaqua Creek) on the Coquihalla Highway and about five miles downriver from the Carolin Mine Road.

It was the one that caused the Canada Day incident that resulted in a kayaker being ripped from the river and airlifted to hospital.

Local resident Renee Coghill posted a warning to kayakers on Facebook the following day.

Coghill is a member of Hope Search & Rescue.

“The pipe is in the water and creates a bad recycling hole, like a wier (barrier), which could become a strainer when the water level drops,” she wrote.

A strainer is an obstruction that lets water through but holds larger objects, like kayaks.

At the time Hill posted, there were no warning signs, but Enbridge moved quickly to lift some. The first is 100 yards from danger and the second is upstream, warning paddlers of an “obstruction in the river” and “dangerous currents below”.

Hill suggested another sign was planned for the river access point near Carolin.

“We are installing signage upstream of these locations and expect to complete the remediation work in August once we receive all required regulatory permits requested,” Enbridge’s Facebook post reads. “A key factor in timing permit approvals is to minimize disruption to the ecosystem.”

The second exposed pipe in the Coquihalla River is 17 kilometers northeast of Hope and five kilometers north of exit 183 (Othello Road) on the Coquihalla Highway.

The pipe is also exposed at a location on the Coldwater River, 500 meters west of the intersection of Patchett Road and Coldwater Road, south of Merritt, and approximately 13 kilometers downstream from the access point to the river at exit 256 (Coldwater Road) on the Coquihalla. Highway.

“Until remediation is complete, we recommend avoiding these affected areas,” the Enbridge post said.

Anyone with questions please email [email protected]

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