K I T I M A T
Sentinel
Northern Volume 58 No. 52
KLNG back before council Cameron Orr Chevron’s Kitimat LNG team was back in Kitimat to give a brief pre-New Year’s look at their project. Chevron’s David Molinksi gave the update to councillors at the December 16 meeting. There was no major announcement from the meeting, which included updates such as the fact the company is about 50 per cent complete on finishing the Forest Service Road (FSR) which leads from Haisla Boulevard to their proposed liquefaction plant for natural gas at Bish Cove. A lot of their early works is complete, including tree falling and burning. Deep soil mixing is also done, which is a key part of stabilizing the foundation of the site. Meanwhile they have plans to soon increase the size of their work camp. The Kitimat LNG project currently has a 135 room camp in place right now. “Early in the new year we’re expecting to increase it to about 287,” said Molinksi. Then sometime around the middle of 2014 they’ll grow that further to 600 rooms. Their camp is approximately in the area of the former Eurocan Pulp and Paper mill. As for the Eurocan building itself, the company is still working out a plan to demolish the structures. They do plan to use an existing landfill on the site though. They have remediation work to do, and will have to receive a permit from the province before they can re-open it. Of course the big question as far as Kitimat LNG goes these days is relating to their plan to dump marine clay into nearby Clio Bay, which is said to improve the ecosystem of the bay’s floor. Molinski says they still have a ways to go before they start doing any of that work. That includes creating an execution plan and then receiving a permit from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. “It’s still some time before we get started on that,” he said. “We still have a lot of work to do to get everything in place.” Phil Germuth asked what sort of work would be done to protect fish smolts released from the Kitimat Hatchery, which use the shores of Clio Bay on their way to the ocean. Tim Edgell, a marine biologist working with the company, said they are working on plans to avoid impacting them. “It’s important that the shallow coastal waters are free of sediments because that’s where the fish would be traveling,” he said. He added that they are collecting ocean information such as currents to make sure their plans wouldn’t impact them.
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Wednesday, December 25, 2013
1.30 INCLUDES TAX
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If there’s one thing you can say about this photo taken recently at night from Haisla Boulevard is that it’s odd that the only snowflakes are the ones lit by electricity on the light poles. But regardless the decorations add a festive mood to roadways in town through the holiday season.
JRP support pipeline with conditions Cameron Orr The reactions came fast regarding the Joint Review Panel’s (JRP) recommendation in favour of the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines proposal. The panel said last Thursday that subject to 209 conditions, they support the project. There are 180 days now for the federal government to actually issue a certificate or not. Kitimat Mayor Joanne Monaghan emphasized that the council is at this moment still neutral on the subject of the pipeline. “We will take the necessary time to look at it and understand the content,” she said of the JRP report. She also notes that the District will engage in a survey with Kitimat residents to gather the community’s opinion on the pipeline now that the JRP process has concluded. But she wouldn’t say if the results of the survey would eventually form an official council position on the project. Meanwhile Skeena MLA Robin Austin says the fight is long from over on the project. “On the one hand I’m a little bit saddened today but I think I’m really reinvigorated for the fight that is going to go up from now,” he said. “If Harper thinks that he can just push
this thing through I think he has a big surprise.” He said it was expected the JRP would side with the federal Conservatives on the project, and discounts the idea that the 209 conditions will do much to make the project any safer. “As to the number of conditions, we all know that’s complete whitewash. Probably the federal government will forget half the conditions and Enbridge will forget the other half,” said Austin. “I think this is just the beginning of the next phase of opposition. This will anger people not just in northwest British Columbia but will anger British Columbians in general.” He said he believes there’s no chance the pipeline will actually be built given the opposition the project is still facing. “Today’s decision serves nothing more than to make people just understand what the agenda is of the Stephen Harper government,” he said. “I would hope that people after today’s decision will recognize they need to contact every single conservative member of parliament in British Columbia, and call the Premier and put pressure on her.” The Kitimat-based Douglas Channel Watch (DCW) also issued their own release following the JRP report, saying Enbridge is “incapable” of meeting the panel’s conditions. Continued on page 2
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