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VOL. 25 NO. 7
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Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Hydro outlines major projects
LAUREN BENN PHOTO
■ Run for fun MIKAYLA HOPKINS and Nieyah Reece run around the field at Cassie Hall Elementary School May 24 during the school’s Run for Fun event. It’s an annual event where students run laps, rain or shine, earning ribbons and getting fit.
BC HYDRO is contemplating everything from building new transmission lines to adding more renewable energy projects to meet a growing demand for power in the northwest. Topping the power demand list is the development of Kitimat into a liquefied natural gas (LNG) hub to feed Asian markets. No cost estimates have been released yet but BC Hydro, based on current construction costs, could be looking at upwards of a $1 billion price tag. Some details were released this week as part of a BC Hydro document outlining power demand and supply for the province for the next 20 years. The crown corporation’s Skeena Substation just south of Terrace and its Minette Substation near Kitimat will play key roles. The Skeena Substation, for example, is a regional distribution point for power coming into the area via a 500kv line from the Williston Substation near Prince George. A variety of other lines then feed out from the substation to communities around the region. One of those lines connects the provincial grid to Kitimat but it’s incapable of providing sufficient power to two planned LNG plants at Kitimat, indicates a BC Hydro information provided earlier to the KitimatStikine regional district and this week to city council. One part of BC Hydro’s work plan to provide more power involves modifications on that existing 287kv line running to Kitimat. “When more power passes through the conductors, they heat and sag,” explains a
BC Hydro letter sent to the regional district. “By replacing some of the poles with taller poles and recontouring the ground in some locations, BC Hydro will ensure the clearance between the lowest point of the conductors (wires) and the highest point of the ground is adequate,” the letter continues in outlining what’s called an interim solution. In the past, BC Hydro might have been able to rely on surplus power from Rio Tinto Alcan’s Kemano hydroelectric generating facility but the company will need that power once it finishes rebuilding its Kitimat aluminum smelter. BC Hydro’s long-term solution “will involve constructing one or more new transmission lines between Skeena and Minette substations. BC Hydro is studying various alternatives at this time.” An exact route needs to be set out and the size of the line has yet to be established. BC Hydro’s northwest plans become even more substantial now that a third LNG plant plan has entered the picture. While BC Hydro estimates it can supply power to the Kitimat LNG and BC LNG plants from existing sources, that won’t be the case for the Canada LNG plant plan announced two weeks ago. Canada LNG, a partnership of Shell and three Asian companies, is much larger than either of the first two LNG plants and the power requirements to compress natural gas to a liquid for export will not only require a new transmission line, but new power sources as well.
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Officials on watch as melt accelerates LOCAL OFFICIALS anticipate that work done before and after the floods of 2007 will help now that river levels are rising as warmer weather accelerates the melting of snowpacks. In the city, protection work that year included beefing up the material at the sewage lagoon bordering the Skeena River. And in the regional district, rip rap was added to
strengthen the banks of the Skeena along Queensway. A cooler spring that has slowed the rate of snowmelt has also helped, says city administrator Don Ramsay. “For the time being, we should be OK,” he said. “Mind you, we are still above average, in some places 134 per cent, above normal [snowpack] and you can flood even at 100 per cent,” Ramsay added.
Some areas, such as Skeena St., remain vulnerable to high water simply because of their location and the river’s path, Ramsay said. Kitimat-Stikine regional district administrator Bob Marcellin is taking a cautious approach, saying that while work in prior years has helped, no one can ultimately tell what happens. “We’re completely dependent upon the weather,”
said Marcellin. “You’re prepared as you can be.” The one thing the regional district does have is training and experience from previous years, he continued. Local officials have been putting that experience and training to the test in a series of emergency preparation sessions in the last weeks featuring people from municipal and regional governments, the RCMP, the
provincial ambulance service, provincial emergency officials and northwest fire departments. One was sponsored by Pacific Northern Gas and while it was focussed on the utility’s services, bringing people together proved a benefit, said Ramsay from the city. “When we can coordinate and cooperate generally, that’s when we can get
efficiencies if we ever do get involved in something such as flooding,” he said. As it is, the regional district’s emergency program coordinator is advising people in low-lying areas to floodproof their structures, including moving valuable items to higher ground. Wes Patterson, who is the regional district’s Thornhill fire chief, says he’ll be issuing updates as needed.
Musical success
Flooding fears
Golden girls
Thornhill Jr. bands, combo win most awards ever at final MusicFest \COMMUNITY A23
Dutch Valley residents vent frustrations at regional district board \NEWS A14
U14 soccer girls sweep competition at team’s first tournament \SPORTS A33