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Northern
www.northernsentinel.com
Volume 57 No. 23
Councillor offers thoughts on leak detection Cameron Orr Councillor Phil Germuth wants to see Enbridge answer questions regarding leak detection on their proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. He moved that the District of Kitimat write a letter to the company, inviting them to a public meeting and requesting that they provide a detailed description of their leak detection strategy and their leak management strategy. That motion passed unanimously. Germuth is seeking more details on that subject after researching leak detection technologies himself and finding what he believes is an ideal complement to Enbridge’s existing plans. What he found was a hydrocarbon sensor from a company based in Texas, which is basically a cable in PVC pipe, buried in the back fill while the pipeline is being constructed. A radio signal is used to transmit a leak signal to the control room, and the cable can detect a leak within one metre, and at a volume of only one litre. The leak system Enbridge is currently proposing, called SCADA, can detect a leak at 1.5 to three per cent of nominal (average daily) flow, said Germuth. His math estimated that a leak of that size would equal between 100,000 and 200,000 litres in a two-hour window. In a day that could translate to 1.2 to 2.4 million litres without being detected, he said. To illustrate, he said that the District’s council chambers would hold about 299,000 litres, which means that five to 10 ‘council chambers’-worth of diluted bitumen could leak undetected in one day. At $100,000 per kilometre to install the hydrocarbon sensors, he said that to install them in the 80 km of pipeline within Kitimat’s watershed would be less than one per cent of the project’s cost of an estimated $5.5 billion. Enbridge spokesperson Paul Stanway responded to Sentinel inquiries about the company’s knowledge and plans for such sensors. “We are currently undergoing a large research initiative to identify and test complementary leak detection technologies suitable for underground transmission pipelines. One of our initiatives includes an evaluation of fiber optic and odor sensing cables to ensure the technology actually performs as vendors claim,” he said. Continued on page 2
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
1.34 INCLUDES TAX
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Ms. Sally Sousa braces for a sponge full of water at last week’s MESS Stock, a year-end carnival of sorts for students at Mount Elizabeth Secondary.
Homes selling fast, prices stable Cameron Orr If homes were something you bought in a store they’d be flying off the shelves. Even so, prices are stabilizing rather than spiking for listings in Kitimat. That’s the observation of Shannon Dos Santos, a realtor at Remax’s Kitimat office. She says that Kitimat’s market is unique these days compared to how it has been historically, with houses ranging in style — duplex, single family and multi-level homes— and also ranging in price, from $50,000 for a lot, to homes with acreage at nearly $800,000. The stock of properties for sale has gone up in the past six weeks or so, when there were about 30 listings. By the end
of March there were 74 properties listed through MLS. That increase in inventory has protected prices from spiking significantly, allowing for some supply to satisfy demand. But demand is definitely there. “It’s a sellers markets right now,” said Santos. She said that it might not be quite as scorching as rumours may indicate though. “The word out there is, generally, the market is crazy, it’s hot, there’s nothing for sale, everything’s moving very fast,” she said. “It is, but it’s not quite as extreme as people out in the public like to make it seem.” For the first quarter of 2012, 78 properties were sold
in Kitimat, worth $13 million, according to numbers from the BC Northern Real Estate Board. That compares to 2011 when there were 37 properties sold for the same timeframe at a value of $5 million. So sales are up, but the amount of properties listed are down. Through MLS there were 74 properties listed by the end of March, whereas the year before there were 131. Among those 78, Santos said there might be 15 on their way to a finalized deal. As prices stabilize in the market, she said that prices have returned to levels seen before the closure of the Eurocan Pulp and Paper Mill. While demand is varied,
she does say a lot of people looking to move into town are looking for newer homes, which typically aren’t available in quantity in Kitimat. “I have a lot of people asking about newer builds,” she said, adding she hopes to see more developers coming in and to see more land become available. At the end of the day, Santos said that in four years of working through Remax she hasn’t seen the market behave this way, where people will get into bidding wars for a property. “It’s a different market for sure.” Someone who puts a reasonably price on their home will likely see it move quickly, she said.
Does BC Hydro have the power for LNG? ... page 7