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Friday, October 10th Pipeline to Bamfield

The meeting last month with Sumi had gone well, better than they anticipated. Mr. Tamari had suggested that, perhaps, they may want to locate the crude oil storage facility closer to the ocean, perhaps near Bamfield, rather than the tankers having to negotiate the waters inland to Port Alberni.

Hank and Elliot immediately saw the benefit. The pipeline would start at the drill site, pass next to the old Cannery and travel the 80 kilometres to Bamfield. The Sumi Corporation, would build the coastal facility, consisting of three oil storage tanks, and the jetty required for the tankers to dock.

A second agreement had been reached at the meeting. Sumi would also provide a fourth storage tank, placed next to the other three, for the refined products the Island would need, that would be purchased from, and delivered by, Sumi. A second run of pipe would lay in the same trench as the oil delivery one, but this one would deliver the gasoline from the Bamfield Depot up to Port Alberni. The MacDougall cannery would become the H&E Fuel Station for the refined products to be pumped into trucks for island-wide delivery.

The Sumi agreements added to Hank’s exponentially growing task list. First and immediate, the Bamfield site was prepared to Sumi’s specifications; laying the underground infrastructure that would tie into the pipeline, and the foundations poured and ready. Sumi would be sending, by way of cargo ship, the massive fuel storage tanks along with the equipment and materials to construct the docking port for their tankers.

The second project that had been added to his list was the conversion of the MacDougall Cannery. The workers had asked to stay on; Hank was glad to keep them – he would be able to keep them busy for a long time. Wilma had been able to provide crews for the drill site, but many more would be needed. When he sold the trucking company on the mainland, many of those workers came over and were put on the biggest project: the pipeline. Originally 12 kilometres, it was now a 75 kilometre undertaking, and the clock was ticking.

Hank stopped his Excursion on the way to check the Bamfield site. Waving over the foreman, Hank asked him how things were progressing. "Pretty good boss. It was a mess by the Franklin Camp turnoff – but it only cost us a day. Ben’s crew will be above the Sarita Lake in a week – so I’m thinking we’ll be ready to connect the two ends of the pipe by mid-January." Hank asked him if the laying in of the communications cables alongside the pipes had created any difficulties. "Not at all. We sand-filled around them and just kept going." He told him to keep up the good work – and continued down the dusty road that wound towards Bamfield.

Hank walked the whole area, checking every task of the project. Satisfied, he stepped up on the hardened slab and looked west over the Pacific. Everything was ready, it had to be. There was too much at stake to fail now.