~ 63 ~

Wednesday, May 5th Milnes Landing, BC

David had completed his analysis of the area near Sooke, on the south end of the island. He had chosen the site carefully, more carefully than Cherry Creek. This time, he had concentrated on a much larger, flatter area, a tract the size of a small lake, about 5 kilometres square. Now he was back on the flat grassy, marsh-like terrain, and watched as Hank and Elliot caught up.

He hoped everything was ready. The others sounded confident at the meeting two weeks ago; now he was beginning to feel the same. Gloria had told them an interim food supply had been brought to the island, if needed during the transition time, and more could be secured through her mainland stores; Hank had finished all of his projects; Elliot reported that his tasks were completed too. The island’s power plants would be fully staffed and operational – in the event some of those workers chose to move to the mainland.

And, he recalled, they were pleased to hear his own report that on March 15th, the first Sumi tanker had arrived with refined products, ready to be distributed through the Cannery Fuel Station. Everything at Bamfield went well, there had been no difficulties as the tanker filled with the Nation’s first sale of crude oil. The second tanker had departed, full, that morning.

"This will cost more to develop – maybe two or three times more than Cherry Creek," he told them when they finally got there.

Hank looked around: "Well, we’re into wilderness here. We’ll have to build over those old logging roads to get in. The good news is – we’re not far from the paved road going into Esquimalt. Dave, tell me again what you think the potential is."

David began describing it, becoming more animated and technical by the sentence until Hank could no longer follow. Elliot followed it though, and Hank hadn’t seen that expression on his friend’s face since the fuel-cell breakthrough. He looked at Elliot and requested a translation.

"Think of an upside down shallow bowl, under the surface. The centre of the bowl, the part closest to the surface, is below Port Alberni. As the bowl curves down, the edges are farther from the surface. Between that bowl edge, and the surface, pockets of gas form naturally. We didn’t run into much at the drill-site, because the bowl was closer to the surface there. Here though…." Elliot’s words trailed off.

Hank understood. "If it’s gas, we may have a different configuration to consider, different storage, maybe more pipelines. We can build the lines, then do some overburden, build a berm – mound it up over the pipes to protect them. How big are we talking about, Dave?"

"If it’s part of the same formation, and I think it is, we’re looking at trillions of cubic feet."

"We better have a meeting with Sumi," Hank said as he stomped out through the marshes. "Call your friend, Elliot. Tell him to bring his favourite pen."