K'en T'em Environmental Services on the ground with Enbridge

K’en T’em is proud to be supporting environmental monitoring work on the Enbridge project in Abbotsford. One of our junior archaeologists is on site every day, working alongside geotechnical crews to monitor borehole drilling and record soil stratigraphy data.

These boreholes go down between 40 and 50 metres, and our monitoring focuses on the first 5 to 6 metres in detail. This includes logging the texture, colour, rock content and shape of the soil, and marking the exact depth where those things change. For the deeper parts of the core, we collect broader observations. The data is shared with the permit holder each day, and our offline maps are synced to the main project map by the end of every shift.

The work supports Enbridge’s efforts to gather ground stability data ahead of pipeline construction. In parts of the Lower Mainland, sediment layers can liquefy in the event of an earthquake.

These tests help engineers make informed decisions about how to build safely.

One of the key methods used is a DCPT test, where they count how many hammer drops it takes to drive a rod one foot into the soil. When they pull up core samples, usually every 5 or 10 feet, the soil scientist takes what he needs, and we document the layers as we see them.

It’s steady work, and it matters.

Our team is glad to be part of this early-stage fieldwork, helping bring a nłeʔképmx presence to a project this far south.