The resort municipality of Whistler, British Columbia, is the Host Mountain Resort community of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The community’s prepartions for the festivities involves a wide array of construction, renovation, and expansion projects begun in 2005 that will continue right up to 2010.
Whistler’s Fitzsimmons Creek flood prevention project, commenced in August 2007, involved removing up to 72,000 m3 of gravel from the creek area. Fitzsimmons Creek is a glacial stream subject to periods of runoff, which can result in high sediment loading near its mouth. Each of four excavators on the job site worked in the environmentally- sensitive area of the creek for up to 72 hr per week for the entire month. To limit potential environmental damage from a hydraulic leak or spill, officials of Whistler required that all hired contractors used only environmentally friendly hydraulic fluid in excavators.
Whistler officials hired an environmental consultant company to oversee the project. “Environmental sensitivity is a very important factor in all of the projects we’re involved in. So we made the switch to Petro-Canada’s Environ MV 46 hydraulic fluid,” says Ron Sander, Whistler’s manager of operations. “Since switching to Environ MV 46 for this Fitzsimmons Creek project, we have also decided to switch our entire 20-piece municipal fleet over,” says Sander.
Environ MV 46 is free of heavy metals, is non-toxic, inherently biodegradable, and recyclable. It’s also designed for year-round use in equipment operating in wide temperature ranges, particularly in environmentally-sensitive areas.
Another benefit Environ MV 46 offers is high oxidation stability, which can lead to long oil life, fewer changeouts, and a reduction in sludge and varnish deposits. Environ hydraulic fluids are free of most of the impurities found in conventional oils and are manufactured with a patented high purity process that produces 99.9% pure base oils. Petro-Canada then blends these base oils with additives, producing a hydraulic fluid that can last up to 8 times longer than competitive vegetable oil-based and conventional hydraulic fluids.
For more information, call Petro Canada, West Mississauga, Ontario, at (416) 730- 2408, e-mail lubescr@petro-canada.ca, or visit www.petro-canada.com.