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Volume 58 No. 26
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Sentinel
Northern
www.northernsentinel.com
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
1.30 INCLUDES TAX
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Shell gives update
Braydon Moretti releases a fish fry into the Kitimat River, via a long plastic tube set up near the Rod and Gun Club on Father’s Day. The Rod and Gun Club hall hosted some family events and information stations, coinciding with Family Fishing Weekend from June 14 to 16. The weekend is established by the Family Fishing Society of B.C., and it’s aim is to encourage new, especially young people, to fish. Cameron Orr
The Shell Canada led LNG export proposal for Kitimat is expected to start sending out its first LNG probably in 2019, given the timelines shared with councillors on June 17. Shell Canada’s Rob Seeley presented a company update at the regular council meeting, saying that assuming getting necessary approvals in 2014 through to 2015, and a final investment decision in 2015, construction would take four years before the facility became operational. Their facility, if it goes ahead, would be built on the former Methanex site which Shell purchased approximately two years ago. The project, which at its peak would have four, six-million tonne LNG trains, is being developed with South Korea’s KOGAS, PetroChina and Mitsubishi, all whom have a 20 per cent stake in the business. Seeley said that Shell has had business arrangements with all of these companies in the past but this is the first time that all four have worked together on a single proposal. Seeley said that many things are being worked on behind the scenes, including arranging contracts with Rio Tinto Alcan to use the Eurocan wharf for two berths of the proposed LNG terminal. “We own the Methanex jetty however we’ve been in discus-
sion with [RTA] about the use of the Eurocan wharf,” he said. There’s more that LNG Canada is interested in with RTA. Seeley said they’d like to take over the work camp that RTA has already built, and continue using that for the LNG project. The construction phase will require about 5,500 total workers, but he said they’re not aiming to have a work camp to hold that amount of people. When asked by councillor Phil Germuth about plans for putting employees in permanent community housing, Seeley said it would be a choice for some, and especially people like project managers would likely live in the community, as they would be more permanent workers rather than those who would come in for a few months at a time. “Clearly we want to have people live in this community and be part of the economic opportunity and growth of the community,” said Seeley. Once the project shifts to the operational phase, Seeley said they’d need around 200 to 400 workers to keep things running. For the initial two trains of LNG, Seeley said they’d likely anticipate 170 tankers yearly in the Douglas Channel, up to 350 when all four are operational. Continued on page 6
Answers flow on potential water issues
Cameron Orr Despite not having the unanimous backing of council, Phil Germuth’s motion to ask Enbridge Northern Gateway a series of nine questions about impacts to Kitimat’s water supply was passed at last week’s meeting. Germuth said he was still waiting for answers following a similar motion made last year to have Enbridge answer questions relating to possible impacts to Kitimat’s water supply in the event of a spill from their proposed pipeline project. His nine questions covered issues such as “What measures will Enbridge take to prevent water disruption to the District of
Kitimat in the event of a spill?” and “What plan does Enbridge have to protect the Kitimat River Hatchery from the effects of a spill? A tabling motion by Edwin Empinado was made in order for staff to come back with the information that is already available on these questions, but he received no seconder for the motion. However Mario Feldhoff and Mary Murphy both voted against the motion. Feldhoff said these questions are already posed to the company and that information has been flowing through the Joint Review Panel process. Murphy also said that these questions
had already been answered. In fact, Mayor Joanne Monaghan said at the meeting that the specific answers to these questions were in her possession, and had been delivered shortly before the meeting, so she couldn’t have them sent out ahead of time. But she promised to have the answers distributed the next day, which she did. In response to Feldhoff’s and Murphy’s opposition, he replied that the JRP is not the one building the pipeline, but Enbridge is, and at the time he had not seen any specific answers from the company regarding the concerns he had. The motion did receive enough votes to
pass and the District of Kitimat was still going to submit the questions to the company, even if the answers were already available. Without posting word-for-word the answer to each question provided by the company — due to space limitations — the company does say in it’s answers that they “would work with the District of Kitimat to develop the Emergency Response Plan.” Such a plan would include actions for the community’s water in-take. Michele Perret, manager for Enbridge’s community relations, told the Sentinel that the plan would be developed after a regulatory approval for the project. Continued on page 6
PM477761
New LNG player on the field? ... page 7